The Anatomy and Clinical Significance of Sensory Disturbance in Parkinson's Disease

The clinical features of Parkinson's disease (PD) include tremors and rigidity. However, paresthesia has not drawn clinical attention. PD involves the whole body and begins with gastrointestinal lesions, which do not start in the midbrain substantia nigra, but from the beginning of the medulla oblongata of the glossopharyngeal nerve nuclei, to the motor nerve dorsal nucleus of the vagus nerve, to the pons and midbrain, and finally to the neocortex. The human eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body perceive the external world. (1) Visual impairment in patients with PD can be easily confused with senile eye disease. This change in retinal pigment cells has many similarities to the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra in PD. (2) Selective high-frequency hearing impairment can cause a certain degree of communication barriers, only understanding the son's bass but not the daughter's soprano, and there is a certain relationship between hearing and body postural balance. (3) Olfactory loss is one of the earliest signs of PD and an important indicator for the early screening of PD. (4) Taste disorders, including loss of taste and taste memory, can cause cognitive impairment. (5) The body's sense of touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and position abnormalities interfere with the motor symptoms of PD and seriously affect the quality of life of patients. This article discusses vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and analyses of neuroanatomy and pathology, revealing its clinical significance.