Static and dynamic noise abolish altruistic biases in Parkinson's disease independent of deep brain stimulation
- 1Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Duesseldorf, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, Duesseldo
Abstract
There are known alterations in decision-making attributed to Parkinsons disease. Yet little is known about how those alterations affect decisions in social contexts. We aimed to assess social decision-making in healthy human volunteers as well as people with Parkinsons disease treated with deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus. Twenty healthy controls and twenty-two people with Parkinsons in both the stimulation ON and OFF conditions took part in a social discounting task that measured the degree of generosity toward others as a function of social-emotional distance. Using a computational approach, we modelled mechanisms of social discounting across three different models that differed in how they mapped choice valuation onto observed decisions. People with Parkinsons less often made generous choices than controls. Across all analyses, we found converging evidence that this effect was attributable to increased static and dynamic decision noise, i.e. inhibitory and attentional processes, but not changes in prosocial valuation. While stimulation sped up decisions, there was no effect of deep brain stimulation on social decision-making. Present results indicate that people with Parkinsons are more prone to random processes such as increased impulsivity and attentional lapses during choices in social situations. Such changes attributed to the disease appear to evade clinical care with dopaminergic compensation and deep brain stimulation.
Related
- Adaptive deep brain stimulation for dynamic gait control in Parkinson’s disease: a randomized feasibility trial
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation demonstrates effects on pupil responses in Parkinson's disease
- Incidental Finding of an Asymptomatic Perielectrode Cyst After Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease
- Effects of globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation on freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease: a prospective short-term single-arm study
- Enhancing deep sleep with auditory stimulation to boost cognitive training responsiveness in people with Parkinson's disease and mild cognitive impairment: Rationale and design of the double-blind randomized controlled trial PD-CogT-Sleep
BibTeX
@misc{hubschmid2026static,
title = {{Static and dynamic noise abolish altruistic biases in Parkinson's disease independent of deep brain stimulation}},
author = {F. Hubschmid and M. Sellitto and B. H. Bahners and T. Pirenne and T. Kalenscher and A. schnitzler and M. van Wingerden and E. Florin},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.08.26365079},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.08.26365079v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Static and dynamic noise abolish altruistic biases in Parkinson's disease independent of deep brain stimulation
AU - F. Hubschmid
AU - M. Sellitto
AU - B. H. Bahners
AU - T. Pirenne
AU - T. Kalenscher
AU - A. schnitzler
AU - M. van Wingerden
AU - E. Florin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.08.26365079
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.08.26365079v1
AB - There are known alterations in decision-making attributed to Parkinsons disease. Yet little is known about how those alterations affect decisions in social contexts. We aimed to assess social decision-making in healthy human volunteers as well as people with Parkinsons disease treated with deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus. Twenty healthy controls and twenty-two people with Parkinsons in both the stimulation ON and OFF conditions took part in a social discounting task that measured the degree of generosity toward others as a function of social-emotional distance. Using a computational approach, we modelled mechanisms of social discounting across three different models that differed in how they mapped choice valuation onto observed decisions. People with Parkinsons less often made generous choices than controls. Across all analyses, we found converging evidence that this effect was attributable to increased static and dynamic decision noise, i.e. inhibitory and attentional processes, but not changes in prosocial valuation. While stimulation sped up decisions, there was no effect of deep brain stimulation on social decision-making. Present results indicate that people with Parkinsons are more prone to random processes such as increased impulsivity and attentional lapses during choices in social situations. Such changes attributed to the disease appear to evade clinical care with dopaminergic compensation and deep brain stimulation.
ER -