Contributions
Abstract: P578
Type: Poster
Abstract Category: Pathology and pathogenesis of MS - Neuropsychology
Cognitive reserve, defined as the lifetime cultural enrichment due to education and leisure activities, is known to mitigate cognitive decline of MS patients, supposedly by reducing the impact of brain pathology. The functional MR correlates of cognitive reserve in MS are not completely investigated.
Cognitive reserve of a sample of 20 MS patients and 13 age and education matched individuals was measured by means of the Cognitive Reserve Index and related to their cognitive impairment, measured with the BRB (Rao et al., 1991). An event related fMRI was performed in order to detect activations in brain areas during a n-back task and regression analyses were conducted on regions of interest.
A positive correlation between cognitive impairment index and brain activation (i.e. the lower the cognitive impairment index, indicative of greater cognitive impairment, the smaller the brain activation) was found in the left (r=.84) and right (r=.89) inferior frontal gyrus, left (r=.89) and right (r=.78) medial orbital gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule (r=.93). On the contrary, a negative correlation (i.e. the greater the CR the lower the brain activation) was found between cognitive reserve and brain activation in the middle cingulum (r=.87), right (r=.85) and left (r=.83) inferior frontal gyrus, left (r=.89) medial orbital gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule (r=.93).
These results might be explained by the greater brain functional efficiency in patients with higher cognitive reserve, as well as by a failure in compensatory hyper activation due to increased disease related cognitive impairment of MS. The clinical significance of brain activations might be differently interpreted in studies on MS and cognition.
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose
Abstract: P578
Type: Poster
Abstract Category: Pathology and pathogenesis of MS - Neuropsychology
Cognitive reserve, defined as the lifetime cultural enrichment due to education and leisure activities, is known to mitigate cognitive decline of MS patients, supposedly by reducing the impact of brain pathology. The functional MR correlates of cognitive reserve in MS are not completely investigated.
Cognitive reserve of a sample of 20 MS patients and 13 age and education matched individuals was measured by means of the Cognitive Reserve Index and related to their cognitive impairment, measured with the BRB (Rao et al., 1991). An event related fMRI was performed in order to detect activations in brain areas during a n-back task and regression analyses were conducted on regions of interest.
A positive correlation between cognitive impairment index and brain activation (i.e. the lower the cognitive impairment index, indicative of greater cognitive impairment, the smaller the brain activation) was found in the left (r=.84) and right (r=.89) inferior frontal gyrus, left (r=.89) and right (r=.78) medial orbital gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule (r=.93). On the contrary, a negative correlation (i.e. the greater the CR the lower the brain activation) was found between cognitive reserve and brain activation in the middle cingulum (r=.87), right (r=.85) and left (r=.83) inferior frontal gyrus, left (r=.89) medial orbital gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule (r=.93).
These results might be explained by the greater brain functional efficiency in patients with higher cognitive reserve, as well as by a failure in compensatory hyper activation due to increased disease related cognitive impairment of MS. The clinical significance of brain activations might be differently interpreted in studies on MS and cognition.
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose