Research:Cognitive Impairment

Hardmeier M, Schoonheim MM, Geurts JJ, Hillebrand A, Polman CH, Barkhof F, Stam CJ.Cognitive dysfunction in early multiple sclerosis: .PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e42087.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis (MS) is frequent. Insight into underlying mechanisms would help to develop therapeutic strategies.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship of cognitive performance to patterns of nodal centrality derived from magneto-encephalography (MEG).

METHODS: 34 early relapsing-remitting MS patients (median EDSS 2.0) and 28 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) had a MEG, a neuropsychological assessment and structural MRI.  A cognition-score was calculated, and normalized grey and white matter volumes were determined.
RESULTS: Patients had lower grey and white matter volumes than HC, male patients had lower cognitive performance than female patients. Lower cognitive performance correlated to decreased nodal centrality over left temporal (lower alpha-band) and right temporal (beta-band) sensors, and to increased nodal centrality over right parieto-temporal sensors (beta-band). Network changes were most pronounced in male patients.

CONCLUSIONS:Partial functional disconnection of the temporal regions was associated with cognitive dysfunction in MS; increased centrality in parietal hubs may reflect a shift from temporal to possibly less efficient parietal processing. To better understand patterns and dynamics of these network changes, longitudinal studies are warranted, also addressing the influence of gender.

This is a complex bit of terminology, if interested you may need to read the article. However in a nutshell this study suggests that there is some grey matter shrinkage in MSers with cognitive problems and males have more cognitive problems than females. This may be reflected by changes in neural networks that handle information, with compensation with using other bits of the brain.

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