The relationship between executive functions and fluid intelligence in multiple sclerosis

GOITIA, BELÉN; BRUNO, DIANA; ABREVAYA, SOFÍA; SEDEÑO, LUCAS; IBÁÑEZ, AGUSTÍN; MANES, FACUNDO; SIGMAN, MARIANO; SINAY, VLADIMIRO; TORRALVA, TERESA; DUNCAN, JOHN; ROCA, MARÍA

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2020 vol. 15

1932-6203

Deficits in cognitive functions dependent upon the integrity of the prefrontal cortex have been described in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In a series of studies we have shown that fluid intelligence (g) is a substantial contributor to frontal deficits and that, for some classical ?executive? tasks, frontal deficits were entirely explained by g. However, for another group of frontal tasks deficits remained once g was introduced as a covariate.This second set of tests included multitasking and theory of mind tasks. In the present study, we aimed at determining the role of fluid intelligence in frontal deficits seen in patients with MS. MethodsA group of patients with Relapsing Remitting MS (n = 36) and a group of control subjects (n= 42) were assessed with a battery of classical executive tests (which included the Wiscon-sin Card Sorting Test, Verbal Fluency, and Trail Making Test B), a multitasking test, a theory of mind test and a fluid intelligence test.ResultsMS patients showed significant deficits in the fluid intelligence task. We found differences between patients and control subjects in all tests except for the multitasking test. The differ-ences in the classical executive tests became non-significant once fluid intelligence was introduced as a covariate, but differences in theory of mind remained.ConclusionsThe present results suggest that fluid intelligence can be affected in MS and that this impairment can play a role in the executive deficits described in MS.