LRRK2 and Parkinson disease: Compared with age-matched control subjects, and dementia-free PD patients, PD patients with dementia exhibit cortical atrophy, white matter abnormalities and elevated amounts of Aβ pathology.19 Major advances in understanding the pathogenesis of PD have come from geneticists and neuroscientists who have identified and characterized several prominent mutations that cause PD.20 Autosomal dominant PD has been linked to mutations in α-synuclein, leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 and vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 35 (VPS35).