SCIENTIFIC HUB

Follow the evidence.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE · MED

Patient-specific functional networks track early cognitive alterations and minor hallucinations in Parkinson's disease.

Nat Ment Health · 2026-06-08

DOI: 10.1038/s44220-026-00657-xPMID: 42859526

Check source for accessJournal ArticleOriginal source ↗

Research overview

The text below is the source article’s original abstract under a verified reuse license. cc by

Minor hallucinations (MHs) affect up to 40% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and are early indicators of cognitive decline. Unlike previous group-level studies, connectome-based brain fingerprinting enables the capture of individualized neural features. Leveraging this framework in a cross-sectional cohort of patients with Parkinson's disease with and without MHs using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, here we show that each patient exhibits a unique brain fingerprint, irrespective of MH status. The most individualized features were associated with clinically relevant measures such as motor-symptom severity and cognitive performance. Patients with MHs showed a loss of individual-specific features in brain networks linked to cognitive health, whereas the cerebellar-to-cortex connectivity-typically less distinctive-became more prominent, emphasizing the role of somatosensory and motor integration in MH pathogenesis. Moreover, MH-related fingerprint regions mapped onto cortical territories with lower densities of neurotransmitter systems implicated in hallucinations. Overall, our fully data-driven findings reveal a distinct, patient-specific signature that differentiates patients with Parkinson's disease and MHs.

Scientific assessment

01

Research question

Assess the question within the original study’s scope.

02

Methods & sample

Check the source article for study design and sample details.

03

Key findings

An editorially approved findings summary is not yet published for this record.

04

Limitations

Generalizability, bias and clinical meaning require separate assessment.

Methods, samples and clinical conclusions are not inferred from bibliographic metadata.