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Loss of interhemispheric inhibition in patients with multiple sclerosis is related to corpus callosum atrophy

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Abstract

Axonal injury and loss in the corpus callosum (CC) is characteristic of the pathology of multiple sclerosis (MS). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) potentially allows neurophysiological consequences of this interhemispheric axonal loss to be defined quantitatively. Here we have used 3T fMRI to study the activation in the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex and deactivation (mediated by transcallosal tracts) in the homologous ipsilateral region in 14 patients with MS and in 14 matched healthy controls during a simple hand-tapping task. Both healthy controls and MS patients showed similar activation in the motor cortex contralateral to the hand moved, but the patients showed a significantly smaller relative deactivation in the ipsilateral motor cortex (P = 0.002). The difference was accounted for by the sub-group of MS patients who previously had impairment of motor function of the hand tested (MS-phd). The CC of the whole patient group was significantly thinner than for the controls (P = 0.001). Atrophy of the CC was correlated with loss of deactivation for the whole patient group (r = −0.50, P = 0.035), but particularly for MS-phd (r = −0.914, P = 0.004). Interhemispheric physiological inhibition thus is impaired in patients with MS, potentially contributing to impairment of motor control. This work suggests one way in which FMRI monitoring of the transcallosal interactions in motor cortex could become a tool for evaluation of therapies that may enhance function in reversibly impaired pathways.

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Abbreviations

EDSS:

Expanded disability status scale

EPI:

Echo-planar imaging

fMRI:

Functional MRI

NART:

National adult reading test

TBV:

Total brain volume

TE:

Echo time

TR:

Repetition time

FOV:

Field of view

MS:

Multiple sclerosis

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Acknowledgements

S.M. is a trainee in the NIH-Oxford Graduate Partnership Programme. P.M.M. is grateful to the MRC (UK) for personal and for core support of the FMRIB Centre. P.M.M. and J.P. jointly thank the MS Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for support of MS studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, University of Oxford, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK

    Stephanie C. Manson & Paul M. Matthews

  2. Experimental Radiology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA

    Stephanie C. Manson & Joseph A. Frank

  3. Department of Clinical Neurology, The Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, UK

    Jacqueline Palace & Paul M. Matthews

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  1. Stephanie C. Manson
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  2. Jacqueline Palace
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  3. Joseph A. Frank
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  4. Paul M. Matthews
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Correspondence to Paul M. Matthews.

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Manson, S.C., Palace, J., Frank, J.A. et al. Loss of interhemispheric inhibition in patients with multiple sclerosis is related to corpus callosum atrophy. Exp Brain Res 174, 728–733 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0517-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0517-4

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