The relationship between executive functions and fluid intelligence in Multiple Sclerosis

VLADIMIRO SINAY; FACUNDO MANES; CATALINA RAIMONDI; TERESA TORRALVA; JOHN DUNCAN; MARÍA ROCA

Honolulu

Encuentro; 63rd AAN 2011 Annual Meeting; 2011

American Academy of Neurology

OBJECTIVE: In the present study, we aimed to determine the role of fluid intelligence in executive deficits shown by patients with MS. BACKGROUND: Deficits in cognitive functions dependent upon the integrity of the prefrontal cortex have been described in Multiple Slcerosis (MS). In a recent study (Roca, 2009) we showed that fluid intelligence (g) is a substantial contributor to frontal deficits and that for some classical executive tasks - such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Tests (WCST) and phonological fluency- frontal deficits were entirely explained by g. DESIGN/METHODS: We assessed a group of patients with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (n= 12) and a group of control subjects (n= 9) with the aforementioned executive test and the Cattell Test of g. RESULTS: MS patients showed significant deficits in the fluid intelligence task. Even more, in line with our previous results, the significant differences found in the WCST became non-significant once fluid intelligence was introduced as a covariate. Non significant differences were found for the verbal fluency task. CONCLUSIONS: The present results suggest that fluid intelligence can be affected in MS and that this impairment can play in role in the executive deficits described in MS.