Contributions
Abstract: EP1579
Type: ePoster
Abstract Category: Pathology and pathogenesis of MS - 24 Neuropsychology
Background: The symbol digit modalities task (SDMT) is recommended for assessing cognitive disabilities in multiple sclerosis (MS). There is a broad literature about adaptations of cognitive tasks (like the paced auditory serial addition task) for functional MRI, but only a few studies investigated the SDMT in both patients and healthy controls (HC).
Here, we adapted an oral version of the SDMT for fMRI to study the cognitive networks involved in the SDMT in both patients and healthy controls.
Methods: In total, 20 patients with relapsing remitting MS (EDSS 1-8; median 2.0) and 20 healthy controls, matches due to age (mean 41y) and gender (10 female) were investigated. Study design was an oral version of the SDMT with 30 sec blocks of assigning numbers to symbols.
Results: Both patients and healthy controls had strong functional activation in areas involved in language processing (Brodmann area (BA) 22), working memory (BA9), motor (BA4, BA6), visuomotor (BA7) and visual function (BA17-19) at p(FWE)< 0.05. Patients did not have any increased activation compared to healthy controls (MS>HC). Interestingly, HC had increased activation in BA 22 and in the insula (BA13) compared to the patients group (HC>MS).
Discussion: Here we could demonstrate a robust fMRI adaptation of the SDMT task. In our data, controls had an increased activation in language processing areas, indicating a disrupted network in MS-patients involved in this task.
Disclosure: MG has received research grants and travel support from TEVA pharma, Biogen Idec, Sanofi genzyme and Novartis.
Abstract: EP1579
Type: ePoster
Abstract Category: Pathology and pathogenesis of MS - 24 Neuropsychology
Background: The symbol digit modalities task (SDMT) is recommended for assessing cognitive disabilities in multiple sclerosis (MS). There is a broad literature about adaptations of cognitive tasks (like the paced auditory serial addition task) for functional MRI, but only a few studies investigated the SDMT in both patients and healthy controls (HC).
Here, we adapted an oral version of the SDMT for fMRI to study the cognitive networks involved in the SDMT in both patients and healthy controls.
Methods: In total, 20 patients with relapsing remitting MS (EDSS 1-8; median 2.0) and 20 healthy controls, matches due to age (mean 41y) and gender (10 female) were investigated. Study design was an oral version of the SDMT with 30 sec blocks of assigning numbers to symbols.
Results: Both patients and healthy controls had strong functional activation in areas involved in language processing (Brodmann area (BA) 22), working memory (BA9), motor (BA4, BA6), visuomotor (BA7) and visual function (BA17-19) at p(FWE)< 0.05. Patients did not have any increased activation compared to healthy controls (MS>HC). Interestingly, HC had increased activation in BA 22 and in the insula (BA13) compared to the patients group (HC>MS).
Discussion: Here we could demonstrate a robust fMRI adaptation of the SDMT task. In our data, controls had an increased activation in language processing areas, indicating a disrupted network in MS-patients involved in this task.
Disclosure: MG has received research grants and travel support from TEVA pharma, Biogen Idec, Sanofi genzyme and Novartis.