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Published on: August 8, 2019
Resting-State Correlations of Fatigue Following Military Deployment
Jeffrey D Lewis1, Kristine M Knutson1, Stephen J Gotts1
1Mental Health Clinic, Wright Patterson Medical Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio (Lewis); Behavioral Neurology Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Md. (Knutson, Tierney, Wassermann); National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md. (Gotts); Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of New Hampshire, Durham (Ramage, Robin); Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City (Tate); and Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Clauw, Williams).
Persistent mental fatigue in military servicemembers after deployment, particularly those with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), may stem from altered brain connectivity. This study found links between fatigue and striatal-prefrontal pathways.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Military Medicine
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Persistent fatigue is a prevalent issue for military personnel post-deployment.
- Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) history is common among fatigued servicemembers.
- Fatigue may involve disrupted effort/reward processing, potentially linked to basal ganglia dysfunction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize fatigue in deployed military servicemembers using the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI).
- To test the hypothesis that fatigue relates to altered basal ganglia functional connectivity.
- To explore the association between fatigue and brain connectivity in mTBI patients.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 28 servicemembers with a history of mTBI.
- Administered the MFI to assess fatigue dimensions.
- Utilized resting-state functional MRI to measure functional connectivity of basal ganglia (caudate, putamen, globus pallidus).
- Correlated MFI subscale scores with functional connectivity, controlling for depression.
Main Results:
- A significant correlation was found between mental fatigue scores and functional connectivity between the left putamen and bilateral superior frontal gyri.
- No other MFI subscale correlations with basal ganglia connectivity remained significant after correction.
- This suggests a specific link between mental fatigue and striatal-prefrontal pathways.
Conclusions:
- Mental fatigue in deployed servicemembers with mTBI history may be associated with increased striatal-prefrontal functional connectivity.
- This relationship appears independent of depression.
- Findings suggest potential effort/reward processing disruptions and may inform future treatments.
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