Back

Weakened prefrontal activation dynamics associated with slowed information processing speed in multiple sclerosis

Burta, O.; Akbarian, F.; Rossi, C.; Vidaurre, D.; d'Hooghe, M. B.; D'Haeseleer, M.; Nagels, G.; Van Schependom, J.

2025-04-17 neuroscience
10.1101/2025.04.08.647709 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Information processing speed (IPS) is a core cognitive deficit in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Previous efforts have associated IPS performance to frontal regions, but were constrained by limited temporal resolution. In this work, we employed a data-driven method, the time delay embedded-hidden Markov model (TDE-HMM), to identify task-specific states that are spectrally defined with distinct temporal and spatial profiles. We used magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data recorded while healthy controls and PwMS performed a cognitive task designed to capture IPS, the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT). The TDE-HMM identified five task-relevant states, supporting a tri-factor contribution to IPS: sensory speed (occipital visual detection and processing), cognitive speed (prefrontal executive and frontoparietal attention shift), and motor speed (sensorimotor). We observed reduced prefrontal and increased frontoparietal activation in PwMS, which correlated with offline SDMT performance. This work can drive future research for MS treatments targeting IPS improvements.

Matching journals

The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.