Clinical Neurophysiology Journal - Editor's Choice

Professor Robert Chen
Editor-in-Chief, Clinical Neurophysiology

The Editor’s Choice—

Morpho-functional correlates of gait impairment in early Parkinson’s disease patients: insights from a multimodal path modeling framework.

Clinical Neurophysiology Volume 184 (April 2026)

Matteo Conti, Davide Mascioli, Clara Simonetta, Jacopo Bissacco, Valerio Ferrari, Silvio Bagetta, Federico Carparelli, Stefano Borrelli, Nicola Biagio Mercuri, Silvia Minosse, Mariangela Pierantozzi, Francesca Di Giuliano, Eliseo Picchi, Alessandro Stefani, Tommaso Schirinzi

The development of effective treatment for gait impairment is a major unmet need in Parkinson’s disease because issues such as freezing of gait often do not respond to dopaminergic medications or even deep brain stimulation. In this volume of Clinical Neurophysiology, Conti et al. studied 73 Parkinson’s disease patients using brain MRI and EEG. MR Parkinson Index (MRPI), which assesses midbrain atrophy using ratios of pons to midbrain area and middle to superior cerebellar peduncle width, correlated with clinical gait scores. EEG α band functional coupling negatively correlated with both MRPI and gait scores. The study highlights the use of multimodal biomarkers to understand gait impairment, delineate clinical heterogeneity and potentially could be used to design personalized neuromodulation treatment for PD.