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Updated: May 27, 2026

Comprehensive Autopsy Program for Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis
Published on: July 19, 2019
A mind "surrounded by a moat": a first-person account of cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis
1Cognitive Neurology/Neuropsychology, Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA. estern@jhmi.edu
Abstract:
This is a first-person account of the cognitive impairments--in speaking, writing, and thinking-caused by multiple sclerosis in a professional writer. The patient explains how she has worked around her deficits in rebuilding her life over the 18 years since her diagnosis. Her personal account is woven together with her clinical history, including her neuropsychological testing and magnetic resonance imaging results. A companion article giving perspectives on the case was written by a cognitive neuroscientist who has been studying some of the types of deficits reported by the patient.
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