Neural Effect of fatigue on detecting early symptoms for Multiple Sclerosis using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) towards imaging Biomarker

Background:

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord. Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms experienced by people with MS, affecting up to 80% of patients. The exact cause of MS-related fatigue is not fully understood, but it is thought to be related to the damage to the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve fibers in the central nervous system. The damage disrupts the normal transmission of nerve impulses, leading to fatigue.



Objective:

To Examine patients with multiple sclerosis with fatigue using SDMT test and imaging through magnetoencephalography. Analysis done through software using MATLAB.



Methods:

MEG data from 9 patients with MS were compared to 5 control subjects. MEG data were filtered

into 4 different frequency bands: theta (4-7Hz), alpha (8-13HZ), beta (14-30Hz), and gamma (30-

85 Hz). Network brain activity for each frequency band was mapped for the strength of

connectivity across 27 regions in each hemisphere, resulting in 1431 pairings in the brain. The

false discovery rate was used to adjust for multiple testing. Only the most statistically significant

connections between the control group and the patient group were further analyzed. These were

based on a p-value of less than 0.05.



Results:

In Frontal-Temporal and frontal to occipital we were able to see higher gamma activities in control compared than the MS patients, mostly focused in the right and interhemispheric region. In the beta activity we found that controls had higher right, left, and interhemispheric compared to MS patients. Alpha and Theta activity in Controls were higher than MS patients. This method will be useful for tailoring individual treatment for patients.