White and gray matter correlates of executive functions and social cognition impairment in MS

COUTO B; BRUNO D; LUCAS SEDEÑO; SINAY V; PAGANI F; SOL ESTEVEZ; MANES F. ; ROCA M. ; IBAÑEZ A.

Encuentro; Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology; 2015

Introduction: Executive Functions (EF) and social cognition (SC) have been shown to be impaired in MS. Previous morphometry studies evidenced atrophy of cortical sites in MS including the insular cortex (IC) and primary somatosensorial cortex (S1) which are crucial hubs of the salience network for bodily sensation and social cognition domains. Objective: Here we evaluate the atrophy of specific nodes of the salience network in MS and relate them to EF and SC deficits. Methods: 20 RRME patients (mean age=40.3; mean EDSS=2) were assessed with neuropsychology tests of EF (Phonological Fluency, Hayling test, INECO-Frontal-screening [IFS] and PASAT) and SC (reading the mind in the eyes, Faux Pas test) and voxel-based morphometry of white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) of structural magnetic resonance imaging. Results: GM and WM atrophy in patients with MS involved a pattern of frontal, parietal and occipital atrophy. Phonological fluency correlated with atrophy of bilateral S1-IC (r=0.59;p=.01), whereas processing speed correlated with atrophy of bilateral insula (r=0.56;p=.01), inhibitory control correlated with atrophy of left S1-IC (r=0.64;p