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Borragán G, Gilson M, Atas A, Slama H, Lysandropoulos A, De Schepper M, Peigneux P. Cognitive Fatigue, Sleep and Cortical Activity in Multiple Sclerosis Disease. A Behavioral, Polysomnographic and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Investigation. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:378. [PMID: 30294266 PMCID: PMC6158319 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2018] [Accepted: 09/03/2018] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) disease frequently experience fatigue as their most debilitating symptom. Fatigue in MS partially refers to a cognitive component, cognitive fatigue (CF), characterized by a faster and stronger than usual development of the subjective feeling of exhaustion that follows sustained cognitive demands. The feeling of CF might result from supplementary task-related brain activity following MS-related demyelination and neurodegeneration. Besides, CF in MS disease might also stem from disrupted sleep. The present study investigated the association between the triggering of CF, task-related brain activity and sleep features. In a counterbalance mixed design, 10 patients with MS and 11 healthy controls were exposed twice for 16 min to a CF-inducing dual working memory updating task (TloadDback) under low or high cognitive demands conditions, counterbalanced. Considering known inter-individual differences and potential cognitive deficits in MS, the maximal cognitive load of the task was individually adapted to each participant’s own upper limits. During the experimental sessions, cortical brain activity was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) during the CF-induction task, and in a resting state immediately before and after. Ambulatory polysomnography recordings were obtained on the nights preceding experimental sessions. When cognitive load was individually adapted to their processing capabilities, patients with MS exhibited similar than healthy controls levels of subjectively perceived CF, evolution of performance during the task, and brain activity patterns. Linear mixed models indicate a negative association between oxygenation level changes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the triggering of subjective CF in patients with MS only. Longer total sleep time was also associated with higher CF in MS patients. These results suggest that controlling for cognitive load between individuals with and without MS results in a similar task-related development of subjective CF. Besides comparable performance and cortical brain activity between groups, mixed model analyses suggest a possible association between CF, DLPFC activity and sleep duration in MS disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guillermo Borragán
- Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Centre de Recherches en Cognition et Neurosciences and ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Médhi Gilson
- Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Centre de Recherches en Cognition et Neurosciences and ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Anne Atas
- Centre de Recherches en Cognition et Neurosciences and ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Consciousness, Cognition and Computational Group, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Hichem Slama
- Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Centre de Recherches en Cognition et Neurosciences and ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Cognitive Neurosciences Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Department of Clinical and Cognitive Neuropsychology, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Andreas Lysandropoulos
- Neuroimmunology Unit - Multiple Sclerosis, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Melanie De Schepper
- Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Centre de Recherches en Cognition et Neurosciences and ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Philippe Peigneux
- Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,Centre de Recherches en Cognition et Neurosciences and ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
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