Cognitive fatigue in traumatic brain injury: a pilot study comparing state and trait fatigue

OBJECTIVE

Cognitive fatigue is a common and disabling symptom following a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Literature on cognitive fatigue has distinguished between two types of fatigue: "state" fatigue refers to the acute experience of fatigue, whereas "trait" fatigue refers to the susceptibility to fatigue over an extended period. However, it is not clear whether state and trait fatigue are distinguishable constructs. Here, we examine the relationship between state and trait fatigue in individuals with TBI, hypothesizing that trait and state measures assess different constructs.

PARTICIPANTS

Twenty-one participants with moderate-severe TBI were recruited.

DESIGN

Participants underwent a cognitively fatiguing task while in an MRI scanner and completed self-report measures examining trait and state fatigue.

RESULTS

No correlation was found between state and trait fatigue. However, the two measures of trait fatigue, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), correlated with one another; additionally only trait fatigue correlated with depression scores, consistent with the literature.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that trait and state fatigue may not be interdependent and that it is important to carefully define the type of fatigue under consideration when assessing fatigue in individuals with TBI.

Using functional connectivity changes associated with cognitive fatigue to delineate a fatigue network

Cognitive fatigue, or fatigue related to mental work, is a common experience. A growing body of work using functional neuroimaging has identified several regions that appear to be related to cognitive fatigue and that potentially comprise a "fatigue network". These include the striatum of the basal ganglia, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the anterior insula. However, no work has been conducted to assess whether the connectivity between these regions changes as a function of cognitive fatigue. We used a task-based functional neuroimaging paradigm to induce fatigue in 39 healthy individuals, regressed the signal associated with the task out of the data, and investigated how the functional connectivity between these regions changed as cognitive fatigue increased. We observed functional connectivity between these regions and other frontal regions largely decreased as cognitive fatigue increased while connectivity between these seeds and more posterior regions increased. Furthermore the striatum, the DLPFC, the insula and the vmPFC appeared to be central 'nodes' or hubs of the fatigue network. These findings represent the first demonstration that the functional connectivity between these areas changes as a function of cognitive fatigue.

Fatigue in Gulf War Illness is associated with tonically high activation in the executive control network

Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a chronic, multi-symptom illness that affects approximately 25% of Gulf veterans, with cognitive fatigue as one of its primary symptoms. Here, we investigated the neural networks associated with cognitive fatigue in GWI by asking 35 veterans with GWI and 25 healthy control subjects to perform a series of fatiguing tasks while in the MRI scanner. Two types of cognitive fatigue were assessed: state fatigue, which is the fatigue that developed as the tasks were completed, and trait fatigue, or one's propensity to experience fatigue when assessed over several weeks. Our results showed that the neural networks associated with state and trait fatigue differed. Irrespective of group, the network underlying trait fatigue included areas associated with memory whereas the neural network associated with state fatigue included key areas of a fronto-striatal-thalamic circuit that has been implicated in fatigue in other populations. As in other investigations of fatigue, the caudate of the basal ganglia was implicated in fatigue. Furthermore, individuals with GWI showed greater activation than the HC group in frontal and parietal areas for the less difficult task. This suggests that an inability to modulate brain activation as task demands change may underlie fatigue in GWI.

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Fatigue-related brain activation can be induced and measured in veterans with GWI.

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A network of brain areas was associated with cognitive fatigue during a working memory task.

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The fatigue network included the basal ganglia, prefrontal and parietal areas.

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Persistent activation in frontal and parietal areas in the GWI group suggests dysregulation of the cognitive control network.

Information processing speed in multiple sclerosis: Relevance of default mode network dynamics

Objective

To explore the added value of dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) of the default mode network (DMN) during resting-state (RS), during an information processing speed (IPS) task, and the within-subject difference between these conditions, on top of conventional brain measures in explaining IPS in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS).

Methods

In 29 pwMS and 18 healthy controls, IPS was assessed with the Letter Digit Substitution Test and Stroop Card I and combined into an IPS-composite score. White matter (WM), grey matter (GM) and lesion volume were measured using 3 T MRI. WM integrity was assessed with diffusion tensor imaging. During RS and task-state fMRI (i.e. symbol digit modalities task, IPS), stationary functional connectivity (sFC; average connectivity over the entire time series) and dFC (variation in connectivity using a sliding window approach) of the DMN was calculated, as well as the difference between both conditions (i.e. task-state minus RS; ΔsFC-DMN and ΔdFC-DMN). Regression analysis was performed to determine the most important predictors for IPS.

Results

Compared to controls, pwMS performed worse on IPS-composite (p = 0.022), had lower GM volume (p < 0.05) and WM integrity (p < 0.001), but no alterations in sFC and dFC at the group level. In pwMS, 52% of variance in IPS-composite could be predicted by cortical volume (β = 0.49, p = 0.01) and ΔdFC-DMN (β = 0.52, p < 0.01). After adding dFC of the DMN to the model, the explained variance in IPS increased with 26% (p < 0.01).

Conclusion

On top of conventional brain measures, dFC from RS to task-state explains additional variance in IPS. This highlights the potential importance of the DMN to adapt upon cognitive demands to maintain intact IPS in pwMS.

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Problems with information processing speed occur often in multiple sclerosis (MS)

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Dynamics in brain communication can reflect information transfer within the brain

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With fMRI, dynamic communication can be measured, which increases upon task demands

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This increase in dynamics explains information processing speed in MS

Cognitive fatigue in individuals with traumatic brain injury is associated with caudate activation

We investigated differences in brain activation associated with cognitive fatigue between persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and healthy controls (HCs). Twenty-two participants with moderate-severe TBI and 20 HCs performed four blocks of a difficult working memory task and four blocks of a control task during fMRI imaging. Cognitive fatigue, assessed before and after each block, was used as a covariate to assess fatigue-related brain activation. The TBI group reported more fatigue than the HCs, though their performance was comparable. Regarding brain activation, the TBI group showed a Task X Fatigue interaction in the caudate tail resulting from a positive correlation between fatigue and brain activation for the difficult task and a negative relationship for the control task. The HC group showed the same Task X Fatigue interaction in the caudate head. Because we had prior hypotheses about the caudate, we performed a confirmatory analysis of a separate dataset in which the same subjects performed a processing speed task. A relationship between Fatigue and brain activation was evident in the caudate for this task as well. These results underscore the importance of the caudate nucleus in relation to cognitive fatigue.

Aerobic exercise increases hippocampal volume and improves memory in multiple sclerosis: preliminary findings

Multiple sclerosis leads to prominent hippocampal atrophy, which is linked to memory deficits. Indeed, 50% of multiple sclerosis patients suffer memory impairment, with negative consequences for quality of life. There are currently no effective memory treatments for multiple sclerosis either pharmacological or behavioral. Aerobic exercise improves memory and promotes hippocampal neurogenesis in nonhuman animals. Here, we investigate the benefits of aerobic exercise in memory-impaired multiple sclerosis patients. Pilot data were collected from two ambulatory, memory-impaired multiple sclerosis participants randomized to non-aerobic (stretching) and aerobic (stationary cycling) conditions. The following baseline/follow-up measurements were taken: high-resolution MRI (neuroanatomical volumes), fMRI (functional connectivity), and memory assessment. Intervention was 30-minute sessions 3 times per week for 3 months. Aerobic exercise resulted in 16.5% increase in hippocampal volume and 53.7% increase in memory, as well as increased hippocampal resting-state functional connectivity. Improvements were specific, with no comparable changes in overall cerebral gray matter (+2.4%), non-hippocampal deep gray matter structures (thalamus, caudate: -4.0%), or in non-memory cognitive functioning (executive functions, processing speed, working memory: changes ranged from -11% to +4%). Non-aerobic exercise resulted in relatively no change in hippocampal volume (2.8%) or memory (0.0%), and no changes in hippocampal functional connectivity. This is the first evidence for aerobic exercise to increase hippocampal volume and connectivity and improve memory in multiple sclerosis. Aerobic exercise represents a cost-effective, widely available, natural, and self-administered treatment with no adverse side effects that may be the first effective memory treatment for multiple sclerosis patients.

Changes in resting connectivity during recovery from severe traumatic brain injury

In the present study we investigate neural network changes after moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) through the use of resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) methods. Using blood oxygen level dependent functional MRI, we examined RSFC at 3 and 6 months following resolution of posttraumatic amnesia. The goal of this study was to examine how regional off-task connectivity changes during a critical period of recovery from significant neurological disruption. This was achieved by examining regional changes in the intrinsic, or "resting", BOLD fMRI signal in separate networks: 1) regions linked to goal-directed (or external-state) networks and 2) default mode (or internal-state) networks. Findings here demonstrate significantly increased resting connectivity internal-state networks in the TBI sample during the first 6 months following recovery. The most consistent finding was increased connectivity in both internal and external state networks to the insula and medial temporal regions during recovery. These findings were dissociable from repeat measurements in a matched healthy control sample.

Premorbid cognitive leisure independently contributes to cognitive reserve in multiple sclerosis

OBJECTIVE

Consistent with the cognitive reserve hypothesis, higher education and vocabulary help persons with Alzheimer disease (AD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) better withstand neuropathology before developing cognitive impairment. Also, premorbid cognitive leisure (e.g., reading, hobbies) is an independent source of cognitive reserve for elders with AD, but there is no research on the contribution of leisure activity to cognition in MS. We investigated whether premorbid cognitive leisure protects patients with MS from cognitive impairment.

METHODS

Premorbid cognitive leisure was surveyed in 36 patients with MS. Neurologic disease severity was estimated with brain atrophy, measured as third ventricle width on high-resolution MRI. Cognitive status was measured with a composite score of processing speed and memory.

RESULTS

Controlling for brain atrophy, premorbid cognitive leisure was positively associated with current cognitive status (r(p) = 0.49, p < 0.01), even when controlling for vocabulary (r(p) = 0.39, p < 0.05) and education (r(p) = 0.47, p < 0.01). Also, premorbid cognitive leisure was unrelated to brain atrophy (r = 0.03, p > 0.5), but a positive partial correlation between leisure and atrophy emerged when controlling for cognitive status (r(p) = 0.37, p < 0.05), which remained when also controlling for vocabulary (r(p) = 0.34, p < 0.05) and education (r(p) = 0.35, p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Premorbid cognitive leisure contributes to cognitive status in patients with MS independently of vocabulary and education. Also, patients with MS who engaged in more cognitive leisure were able to withstand more severe brain atrophy at a given cognitive status. Premorbid cognitive leisure is supported as an independent source of cognitive reserve in patients with MS.

The neural correlates of cognitive fatigue in traumatic brain injury using functional MRI

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

The present study used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to objectively assess cognitive fatigue in persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI). It was hypothesized that while performing a cognitive task, TBI participants would show increased brain activity over time, indicative of increased cerebral 'effort' which might manifest as the subjective feeling of cognitive fatigue.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Functional MRI was used to track brain activity across time while 11 TBI patients with moderate-severe injury and 11 age-matched healthy controls (HCs) performed a modified Symbol Digit Modalities Task (mSDMT). Cognitive fatigue was operationally defined as a relative increase in cerebral activation across time compared to that seen in HCs. ROIs were derived from the Chauduri and Behan model of cognitive fatigue.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

While performing the mSDMT, participants with a TBI showed increased activity, while HCs subsequently showed decreased activity in several regions including the middle frontal gyrus, superior parietal cortex, basal ganglia and anterior cingulate.

CONCLUSIONS

Increased brain activity exhibited by participants with a TBI might represent increased cerebral effort which may be manifested as cognitive fatigue. Functional MRI appears to be a potentially useful tool for understanding the neural mechanisms associated with cognitive fatigue in TBI.

Jumping the gun: is effective preparation contingent upon anticipatory activation in task-relevant neural circuitry?

Subjects switched between tasks that rely on separable "low-level" neural circuits, a motion and a color task. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we assessed anticipatory processes within these circuits during preparation to switch between tasks. Once the switch was made, we could then compare activation levels within the circuit associated with the newly relevant task to continuing activity in the circuit associated with the irrelevant task, allowing us to assess both the effectiveness of anticipatory switching mechanisms and the subsequent competition between alternative stimulus-response contingencies. Subjects prepared effectively for the color task, being equally fast and accurate on switch trials as on repeat trials, and this successful preparation was associated with robust preparatory activity within well-known color-processing regions. In contrast, subjects showed considerable behavioral costs when switching to the motion task, evincing a lack of effective preparation, borne out by the fact that motion circuits were silent during the preparatory period.

A topography of executive functions and their interactions revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging

We used fMRI to study the brain processes involved in the executive control of behavior. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), which allows unpredictable and predictable NOGO events to be contrasted, was imaged using a mixed (block and event-related) fMRI design to examine tonic and phasic processes involved in response inhibition, error detection, conflict monitoring and sustained attention. A network of regions, including right ventral prefrontal cortex (PFC), left dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) and right inferior parietal cortex, was activated for successful unpredictable inhibitions, while rostral anterior cingulate was implicated in error processing and the pre-SMA in conflict monitoring. Furthermore, the pattern of correlations between left dorsolateral PFC, implicated in task-set maintenance, and the pre-SMA were indicative of a tight coupling between prefrontally mediated control and conflict levels monitored more posteriorly. The results reveal that the executive control of behavior can be separated into distinct functions performed by discrete cortical regions.

The role of response requirements in task switching: dissolving the residue

Task-switching paradigms, which are regularly used to assay 'executive control' processes in humans, almost invariably reveal a decrement in subjects' performance on the first trial following a switch of task. That is, subjects are slower to respond and more error prone on the switch trial, a difference in performance that has been termed the 'switch-cost'. This switch cost has then been taken to reflect the time taken by neural control processes. Previous studies have shown that while performance improves as more time is provided to prepare for the switch, switch costs persist, even over very long intervals. In the present study, however, we find that changing the response regimen (choice reaction time vs go-no-go) has profound effects on the switch cost. A task switching paradigm was used in which subjects randomly switched between two tasks, based on a cue that was presented at varying intervals prior to the presentation of the imperative stimulus. While switch costs were found in all conditions in the choice reaction time blocks, they were completely abolished in the go-no-go blocks when sufficient preparation time was provided (500 or 800 ms). This is important because the only difference between the choice reaction time and go-no-go conditions was the response requirement: these conditions did not differ in the stimuli used, in the tasks performed or in the preparation time provided. These data call into question models of executive control that interpret switch costs as reflecting the time taken by neural processes to switch the system from a readiness to perform one task to a readiness to perform another.

Task switching: a high-density electrical mapping study

Flexibly switching between tasks is one of the paradigmatic functions of so-called "executive control" processes. Neuroimaging studies have implicated both prefrontal and parietal cortical regions in the processing necessary to effectively switch task. Beyond their general involvement in this critical function, however, little is known about the dynamics of processing across frontal and parietal regions. For instance, it remains to be determined to what extent these areas play a role in preparing to switch task before arrival of the stimulus to be acted upon and to what extent they play a role in any switching processes that occur after the stimulus is presented. Here, we used the excellent temporal resolution afforded by high-density mapping of brain potentials to explore the time course of the processes underlying (1) the performance of and (2) the preparation for a switch of task. We detail the contributions of both frontal and parietal processes to these two aspects of the task-switching process. Our data revealed a complex pattern of effects. Most striking was a period of sustained activity over bilateral parietal regions preceding the switch trial. Over frontal regions, activity actually decreased during this same period. Strongest sustained frontal activity was in fact seen for trials on which no switch was required. Further, we find that the first differential activity associated with switching task was over posterior parietal areas (220 ms), whereas over frontal scalp, the first differential activity is found more than 200 ms later. These and other effects are interpreted in terms of a "competition" model in which preparing to switch task is understood as the beginning of a competition between the potentially relevant tasks that is resolved during the switch trial. Our findings are difficult to account for with models that posit a strong role for frontal cortical regions in "reconfiguring" the system during switches of task.

Cognitive control processes during an anticipated switch of task

For successful negotiation of our environment, humans must be readily able to switch from one task to another. This ability relies on 'executive control' processes and despite extensive efforts to detail the nature of these processes, there is little consensus as to how the brain achieves this critical function. Behavioural studies show that as subjects are given more time to prepare to switch task, performance improves; yet even with the longest preparation intervals, there remains an ineradicable performance cost on switch trials. As such, some elements of the switching process must wait until the stimulus to be acted upon has actually been presented. Here, using the methods of high-density mapping of brain potentials, we show that early visual processes are substantially different on switch trials than on later trials. Our data show that while there is clearly a degree of preparatory processing that occurs prior to a predictable switch of task, some elements of switching are only achieved after the switch stimulus has been presented. Our findings are discussed in the context of a new model of executive control processes that suggests that preparing to switch task may not be a separate (control) process per se, but rather, the beginning of a competition between the potentially relevant tasks, a competition that is ultimately resolved during the switch trial.