Resting state functional connectivity in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis with mild disability – a data driven, whole brain multivoxel pattern analysis study

Abstract

ABSTRACTMultivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) has emerged as a powerful unbiased approach for generating seed regions of interest (ROIs) in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analysis in a data-driven manner. The aim of the present study was to investigate RSFC differences between persons with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and healthy controls (HCs). We performed a whole-brain connectome-wide MVPA in 50 RRMS patients with expanded disability status scale ≤4 and 50 age and gender-matched HCs. Significant group differences were noted in RSFC in 9 clusters distributed in 7 regions; right middle frontal gyrus, frontal medial cortex, left frontal pole, anterior cingulate gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, left posterior middle temporal gyrus and right lateral occipital cortex. Whole-brain seed-to-voxel RSFC characterization of these clusters as seed ROIs revealed significantly increased RSFC to the posterior brain regions (bilateral superior lateral occipital cortices, right lingual gyrus and left occipital pole) and reduced connectivity in the anterior and medial regions (right paracingulate gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, left amygdala and left frontal orbital cortex) in RRMS compared to HCs. The results of this study agree with the previous reports on abnormalities of RSFC in RRMS, the cognitive and clinical implications of which are discussed herein.