Abstract
Rationale
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients exhibit cognitive deficits that negatively impact
quality of life. The Relative Consequence Model suggests that problems with information
processing speed (IPS) may be the basis for many of these cognitive difficulties.
Objective
To investigate, with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), if an IPS task
(the Computerized Test of Information Processing (CTIP)) would reveal neurophysiological
differences between MS patients and matched controls.
Methods
Performance and neural activation were investigated in twelve cognitively impaired
MS patients and 12 matched controls as each performed the CTIP. The CTIP measures
reaction time (RT) and errors on three tasks (simple RT, choice RT and semantic search
RT) with increasing cognitive demands.
Results
Participants demonstrated increased RT with increased task complexity. Patients showed
longer RTs for the choice RT condition than controls but the pattern of performance
across tasks did not vary between groups. Errors were not significantly different
between groups. Imaging results for both the choice and the semantic search conditions
revealed significant differences between groups involving a compensatory increase
in activation in MS participants compared to controls in prefrontal cortex and right
temporal gyri. However, there were also areas of decreased activity in MS participants
when compared with controls in left temporal gyri.
Conclusions
Significantly different neural activation patterns between MS patients and controls
were associated with IPS, as measured by the CTIP.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 24, 2011
Accepted:
August 2,
2011
Received in revised form:
July 8,
2011
Received:
January 27,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
