Classic Block Design "Pseudo"-Resting-State fMRI Changes After a Neurorehabilitation Program in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

J Neuroimaging. 2018 Feb 05;:

Authors: Pareto D, Sastre-Garriga J, Alonso J, Galán I, Arévalo MJ, Renom M, Montalban X, Rovira À

Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to assess changes in the resting-state networks (RSNs) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) after a cognitive rehabilitation program (CRP), by retrospectively analyzing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using the classical block design.
METHODS: Fifteen patients with MS (2 primary progressive, 3 relapsing-remitting, 10 secondary progressive) were scanned before and after the CRP on a 1.5T MRI scanner. In addition, patients underwent pre- and post-CRP neuropsychological assessment using a battery of standardized tests. Five healthy individuals were scanned at the same time points to confirm the test-retest reliability of the imaging technique. For each study, the individual fMRI blocks of rest were merged to produce a "pseudo"-resting-state (pseudo-RS) of 3 minutes duration. RS studies were analyzed with the MELODIC toolbox. A dual regression analysis was applied to estimate the longitudinal changes in RSNs of patients and test controls relative to a set of predefined RSNs used as templates.
RESULTS: In healthy individuals, there were no significant differences in RSN results between the two time points studied. In the group of patients with MS, significant differences were found post-CRP in the visual medial, cerebellar, auditory, and frontal-executive RSNs. Furthermore, synchronization increases in the frontal-executive RSN were associated with cognitive improvement on neuropsychological testing.
CONCLUSIONS: Results obtained using a pseudo-RS approach to analyze data from block-design fMRI studies suggest that a CRP of 5 weeks' duration induces measurable changes in specific RSNs of patients with MS.

PMID: 29400912 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]