ABSTRACT
Although gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction is conventionally referred to as one of the “nonmotor” features of Parkinson’s disease (PD), this is actually somewhat of a misnomer. Many (though certainly not all) aspects of GI function are clearly motor in character, and it is the more obscure sensory aspects of GI function that are often overlooked with regard to involvement in disease processes. What does distinguish GI dysfunction from the traditional motor features of PD is that the motor systems involved belong primarily, though not exclusively, to the autonomic and enteric, rather than somatic, nervous systems, and the muscles affected by the nervous system dysfunction are largely (though once again not exclusively) of the smooth, rather than striated, type.
