Cognitive speed and white matter integrity in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis

Manca, Riccardo; Stabile, Maria Rosaria; Bevilacqua, Francesca; Cadorin, Cristina; Piccione, Francesco; Sharrack, Basil; Venneri, Annalena

doi:10.1016/j.msard.2019.02.021

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…In line with previous studies, the majority of the WM tracts analyzed showed significant FA reduction in MS patients compared to HCs. 33 Contrary to previous studies, we found no FA abnormalities in the anterior commissure 34 and cingulum, 7 possibly due to contamination from the cerebrospinal fluid on these small tracts, which were not skeletonized to maintain spatial resolution.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Functional and structural MRI correlates of executive functions in multiple sclerosis

et al. 2021

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Background: Executive dysfunctions, including difficulties in attention, working memory, planning, and inhibition affect 15%–28% of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Objectives: To investigate structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities underlying executive function (EF) in MS patients. Methods: A total 116 MS patients and 65 controls underwent resting-state (RS) and diffusion-weighted sequences and neuropsychological examination, including Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) to test EF. Brain RS cognitive networks and fractional anisotropy (FA) from a priori selected white matter tracts were derived. Associations of WCST scores with RS functional connectivity (FC) and FA abnormalities were investigated. Results: In MS patients, predictors of working memory/updating were: lower corpus callosum (CC) FA, lower left working-memory network (WMN), right WMN RS FC for worse performance; lower executive control network (ECN), higher default-mode network (DMN), and salience network (SN) RS FC for better performance ( R2 = 0.35). Predictors of attention were lower CC genu FA, lower left WMN, and DMN RS FC for worse performance; higher left WMN and ECN RS FC for better performance ( R2 = 0.24). Predictors of worse shifting/inhibition were lower CC genu and superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) FA, lower left WMN RS FC for worse performance; and higher ECN RS FC for better performance ( R2 = 0.24). Conclusions: CC and SCP microstructural damage and RS FC abnormalities in cognitive networks underlie EF frailty in MS.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Functional and structural MRI correlates of executive functions in multiple sclerosis

et al. 2021

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“…Instead, faster performance on the same test in the SPMS group was associated with lower functional connectivity of this network in the left inferior frontal gyrus: an area associated with oral verbal production and semantic processing [49,50] as well as cognitive control [51]. These results appear consistent with the identification of different frontal WM tracts as the main structural neural correlates of PS performance of people with SPMS [52].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Multiple brain networks support processing speed abilities of patients with multiple sclerosis

Manca

Mitolo

Stabile

et al. 2019

Postgraduate Medicine

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Objectives: Many people affected by multiple sclerosis (MS) experience cognitive impairment, especially decreases in information processing speed (PS). Neural disconnection is thought to represent the neural marker of this symptom, although the role played by alterations of specific functional brain networks still remains unclear. The aim is to investigate and compare patterns of association between PS-demanding cognitive performance and functional connectivity across two MS phenotypes. Methods: Forty patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and twenty-five with secondary progressive MS (SPMS) had neuropsychological and MRI assessments. Multiple regression models were used to investigate the relationship between performance on tests of visuo-motor and verbal PS, and on the verbal fluency tests, and functional connectivity of four cognitive networks, i.e. left and right fronto-parietal, salience and default-mode, and two control networks, i.e. visual and sensorimotor. Results: Patients with SPMS were older and had longer disease history than patients with RRMS and presented with worse overall clinical conditions: higher disease severity, total lesion volume and cognitive impairment rates. However, in both patient samples, cognitive performance across tests was negatively correlated with functional connectivity of the salience and default-mode networks, and positively with connectivity of the left frontoparietal network. Only the visuo-motor PS scores of the RRMS group were also associated with connectivity of the sensorimotor network. Conclusions: PS-demanding cognitive performance in patients with MS appears mainly associated with strength of functional connectivity of frontal networks involved in evaluation and manipulation of information, as well as the default mode network. These results appear in line with the hypothesis that multiple neural networks may be needed to support normal 4 cognitive performance across MS phenotypes. However, different PS measures showed partially different patterns of association with functional connectivity. Therefore, further investigations are needed to clarify the contribution of inter-network communication to specific cognitive deficits due to MS.

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“…T1-weighted and FLAIR images were pre-processed following a procedure previously described in detail (51). Briefly, T1-weighted images were first reoriented to the bi-commissural plane and segmented into GM, WM and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).…”

Section: Mri Pre-processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modulatory effects of cognitive exertion on regional functional connectivity of the salience network in women with ME/CFS: A pilot study

Manca

Khan

Mitolo

et al. 2021

Journal of the Neurological Sciences

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Cognitive speed and white matter integrity in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis

Cited by 18 publications

References 77 publications

Functional and structural MRI correlates of executive functions in multiple sclerosis

Functional and structural MRI correlates of executive functions in multiple sclerosis

Multiple brain networks support processing speed abilities of patients with multiple sclerosis

Modulatory effects of cognitive exertion on regional functional connectivity of the salience network in women with ME/CFS: A pilot study

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