Impairment of social cognition in multiple sclerosis: Amygdala atrophy is the main predictor

Batista, Sónia; d’Almeida, Otília C.; Afonso, Ana; Freitas, Sandra; Macário, Carmo; Sousa, Lívia; Castelo‐Branco, Miguel; Santana, Isabel; Cunha, Luı́s

doi:10.1177/1352458516680750

Cited by 58 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Participants included in this study correspond to the same dataset previously published by our group. 14 It consists of 60 patients with MS regularly followed in our department and 60 healthy volunteers recruited from the community who served as healthy controls (HC), matched on age, sex, and education level (table 1).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14 As we did not find any significant lateral hemispheric differences regarding fatigue in a preliminary analysis, left and right hemispheric volumes were averaged in order to reduce the number of variables to the smallest possible set. 14 The DTI images were processed using Oxford University's FMRIB Software Library (FSL, fmrib.ox.ac.uk/ fsl) version 5.0.9, on a Linux-based platform, following the tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) pipeline. 14,24 A more detailed description of the methods used in MRI acquisition and analysis has been provided elsewhere.…”

Section: Mri Acquisition and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14 The DTI images were processed using Oxford University's FMRIB Software Library (FSL, fmrib.ox.ac.uk/ fsl) version 5.0.9, on a Linux-based platform, following the tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) pipeline. 14,24 A more detailed description of the methods used in MRI acquisition and analysis has been provided elsewhere. 14,21 Statistical analysis Group comparisons were performed using the t test for unpaired samples, the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test, and χ 2 test when appropriate.…”

Section: Mri Acquisition and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14,24 A more detailed description of the methods used in MRI acquisition and analysis has been provided elsewhere. 14,21 Statistical analysis Group comparisons were performed using the t test for unpaired samples, the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test, and χ 2 test when appropriate. Correlations between MFIS scores and demographic, clinical, and MRI variables were examined using Pearson coefficients or Spearman rank order coefficient when appropriate.…”

Section: Mri Acquisition and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The neural basis of fatigue in multiple sclerosis

Novo

Batista²,

Alves

et al. 2018

Neur Clin Pract

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BackgroundFatigue is a frequent disabling symptom in multiple sclerosis (MS), but its pathophysiology remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to explore the underlying neural basis of fatigue in patients with MS. MethodsWe enrolled 60 consecutive patients with MS and 60 healthy controls (HC) matched on age, sex, and education. Fatigue was assessed using the Portuguese version of the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS). All participants underwent 3T brain MRI (conventional and diffusion tensor imaging [DTI] sequences). White matter (WM) focal lesions were identified and T1/T2 lesion volumes were computed. Tract-based spatial statistics were applied for voxel-wise analysis of DTI metrics fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity (MD) on normal-appearing WM (NAWM). Using Freesurfer software, total and regional volumes of cortical and subcortical gray matter (GM) were calculated. ResultsCompared to HC, patients with MS scored significantly higher on MFIS (33.8 ± 19.7 vs 16.5 ± 15.1, p < 0.001). MFIS scores were not significantly correlated with T1/T2 lesion volumes, total GM volume, or any regional volume of cortical and subcortical GM. Significant correlations were found between global scores of MFIS and MD increase of the NAWM skeleton, including corona radiata, internal capsule, external capsule, corticospinal tract, cingulum, corpus callosum, fornix, superior longitudinal fasciculus, superior frontooccipital fasciculus, sagittal stratum, posterior thalamic radiation, cerebral peduncle, and uncinate fasciculus. ConclusionsIn this study, fatigue was associated with widespread NAWM damage but not with lesion load or GM atrophy. Functional disconnection, caused by diffuse microstructural WM damage, might be the main neural basis of fatigue in MS.

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Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mri Acquisition and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mri Acquisition and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mri Acquisition and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The neural basis of fatigue in multiple sclerosis

Novo

Batista²,

Alves

et al. 2018

Neur Clin Pract

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“…When ToM has been separately evaluated in MS patients, they performed worse than controls in all tasks; however, these deficits were not correlated to demographic variables or neuropsychological test performance, but showed a significant correlation with lesion load in specific tracts. 64,65 Then, disconnection by white matter damage is one of the possible underlying mechanism of ToM impairment, 66,67 which appears to be independent of executive dysfunction, depression or fatigue. 68…”

Section: Ms and Tommentioning

confidence: 99%

Social cognition: Concepts, neural basis and its role in multiple sclerosis

Labbé

Ciampi

Rodríguez

2017

Neurology & Clinical Neurosc

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Social cognition, including social perception, empathy and theory of mind, focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations, thus guiding social interactions. Specific patterns have been described in patients affected by different pathologies, such as Alzheimer's disease, autism and schizophrenia. Multiple sclerosis, an immune-mediated neurodegenerative disease, can affect global cognition in 40-70% of patients, with an impact on work and family status. Multiple sclerosis patients have shown a decrease in performance of tasks related to social cognition, and reflect changes in the structure and activity of specific brain areas. In the present review, we propose an operational definition of social cognition and its subdomains, and a comprehensive overview of how social perception, empathy and theory of mind are decreased in multiple sclerosis patients. Finally, we discuss its relationship with neuropsychiatric disorders, and expose some questions that remain unanswered.

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The neural substrates of social cognition deficits in newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis patients

Ziccardi,

Genova,

Colato

et al. 2024

Ann Clin Transl Neurol

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ObjectiveCognitive and affective symptoms in multiple sclerosis (MS) can be independently impaired and have different pathways of progression. Cognitive alterations have been described since the earliest MS stages; by contrast, the social cognition (SC) domain has never been investigated in the first year from MS diagnosis. We aimed to evaluate SC and unravel its neural bases in newly diagnosed MS patients.MethodsSeventy MS patients underwent at diagnosis a 3 T‐MRI and a neuropsychological/SC assessment (median time between diagnosis and MRI/cognitive evaluation = 0 months). We tested two matched reference samples: 31 relapsing–remitting MS patients with longer course (mean ± SD disease duration = 7.0 ± 4.5 years) and 38 healthy controls (HCs). Cortical thicknesses (CTh) and volumes of brain regions were calculated.ResultsNewly diagnosed MS patients performed significantly lower than HCs in facial emotion recognition (global: p < 0.001; happiness: p = 0.041, anger: p = 0.007; fear: p < 0.001; disgust: p = 0.004) and theory of mind (p = 0.005), while no difference was found between newly diagnosed and longer MS patients. Compared to lower performers, higher performers in facial emotion recognition showed greater volume of amygdala (p = 0.032) and caudate (p = 0.036); higher performers in theory of mind showed greater CTh in lingual gyrus (p = 0.006), cuneus (p = 0.024), isthmus cingulate (p = 0.038), greater volumes of putamen (p = 0.016), pallidum (p = 0.029), and amygdala (p = 0.032); patients with higher empathy showed lower cuneus CTh (p = 0.042) and putamen volume (p = 0.007).InterpretationsSC deficits are present in MS patients since the time of diagnosis and remain persistent along the disease course. Specific basal, limbic, and occipital areas play a significant role in the pathogenesis of these alterations.

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Impairment of social cognition in multiple sclerosis: Amygdala atrophy is the main predictor

Abstract: Patients with MS have impairment on social cognition. Amygdala atrophy was the main predictor probably due to its central position within the "social brain" network.

Cited by 58 publications

References 30 publications

The neural basis of fatigue in multiple sclerosis

The neural basis of fatigue in multiple sclerosis

Social cognition: Concepts, neural basis and its role in multiple sclerosis

The neural substrates of social cognition deficits in newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis patients

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