Using advanced diffusion neuroimaging technology, Kessler Foundation researchers investigated the relationship between the rate of cognitive fatigue and microstructural changes in the brains of people with multiple sclerosis. Their results help fill a gap in the current understanding of how brain pathology influences the development of fatigue over time.
Their results were published in Frontiers of Neurology July 04, 2022, in the open access article “Associations of White Matter and Basal Ganglia Microstructure to Cognitive Fatigue Rate in Multiple Sclerosis,” (doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.911012). The authors are Cristina Almeida Flores Román, PhD, Glenn Wylie, DPhil, John DeLuca, PhD, and Bing Yao, PhD, and the Kessler Foundation.
The study was conducted at the Kessler Foundation’s Rocco Ortenzio Neuroimaging Center, which is dedicated solely to rehabilitation research. The participants were 62 people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. All completed questionnaires measuring depression, state and trait anxiety, and trait fatigue. While in the scanner, the participants were put through a cognitively strenuous task. In addition to measuring cognitive fatigue rate, the researchers measured whole-brain lesion volume and performance during the fatigue-inducing task.
We found that the rate of cognitive fatigue was related to white matter pathways, many of which are associated with the basal ganglia or what we have proposed as the “fatigue network”. These results bring us closer to understanding the impact of brain pathology on the experience of the moment. This is fundamental to developing effective interventions in the management of crippling fatigue in MS and other neurological diseases. »
Cristina Almeida Flores Román, Lead Author, National MS Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kessler Foundation.
Source :
Journal reference:
Romanian, CAF, et al. (2022) Associations of white matter and basal ganglia microstructure with cognitive fatigue rate in multiple sclerosis. Frontiers of neurology. doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2022.911012.
