SYMPTOMS of advanced Parkinson’s disease, including “mental inflexibility and inability to handle contradictory reports, " may have affected Hitler’s judgment and contributed to “the defeat of Germany at the Battle of Normandy" and the eventual fall of the Third Reich, a Texas researcher said.

Hitler had parkinsonism as early as 1934, but his aides helped him to conceal the symptoms of the disorder, including tremor and slowed movement, said Dr. J.T. Hutton of the Neurology Research and Education Center.

Hutton and colleague Dr. Morris compared the characteristic cognitive deficits, or thinking problems, of advanced parkinsonism with descriptions in historical documents of Hitler’s behavior toward the end of WWII. They note that Hitler’s physician reported during interrogation after the war that Hitler’s movements and reactions had become increasingly slow and that he exhibited marked tremors.