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A Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) Study of Gulf War Illness (GWI)
Brian E Engdahl1, Lisa M James2, Ryan D Miller3
1Brain Sciences Center, Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Background:
Gulf War Illness (GWI) has affected many Gulf War veterans. It involves several organs, most notably the brain. Neurological-cognitive-mood-related symptoms frequently dominate and are at the root of chronic ill-health and disability in GWI. Here we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying brain dysfunction in GWI in the absence of mental health disorders.
Methods:
Eighty-six veterans completed diagnostic interviews to establish the presence of GWI and assess mental health status. Participants diagnosed with GWI met both Center for Disease Control and Kansas criteria. We studied 46 healthy controls and 40 veterans with GWI without mental illness. They all underwent a resting-state magnetoencephalographic (MEG) scan to assess brain communication based on synchronous neural interactions (SNI; Georgopoulos et al., 2007).
Findings:
We found substantial differences in SNI between control and GWI groups centered on the cerebellum and frontal cortex. In addition, using the maxima and minima of SNI per sensor as predictors, we successfully classified 94.2% of the 86 participants (95% sensitivity, 93.5% specificity).
Interpretation:
These findings document distinct differences in brain function between control and GWI in the absence of mental health comorbidities, differences that are excellent predictors of GWI.
Funding:
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and University of Minnesota.
