Abnormal functional connectivity in radiologically isolated syndrome: A resting-state fMRI study

Radiologically isolated syndrome (RIS) patients might have psychiatric and cognitive deficits, which suggests an involvement of major resting-state functional networks. Notwithstanding, very little is known about the neural networks involved in RIS.

To examine functional connectivity differences between RIS and healthy controls using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Resting-state fMRI data in 25 RIS patients and 28 healthy controls were analyzed using an independent component analysis; in addition, seed-based correlation analysis was used to obtain more information about specific differences in the functional connectivity of resting-state networks. Participants also underwent neuropsychological testing.

RIS patients did not differ from the healthy controls regarding age, sex, and years of education. However, in memory (verbal and visuospatial) and executive functions, RIS patients' cognitive performance was significantly worse than the healthy controls. In addition, fluid intelligence was also affected. Twelve out of 25 (48%) RIS patients failed at least one cognitive test, and six (24.0%) had cognitive impairment. Compared to healthy controls, RIS patients showed higher functional connectivity between the default mode network and the right middle and superior frontal gyri and between the central executive network and the right thalamus (p_FDR < 0.05; corrected). In addition, the seed-based correlation analysis revealed that RIS patients presented higher functional connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex, an important hub in neural networks, and the right precuneus.

RIS patients had abnormal brain connectivity in major resting-state neural networks and worse performance in neurocognitive tests. This entity should be considered not an "incidental finding" but an exclusively non-motor (neurocognitive) variant of multiple sclerosis.