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Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Analysis of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Published on: July 28, 2013
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Volumetric and diffusion MRI abnormalities associated with dysarthria in multiple sclerosis
Katherine H Kenyon1,2, Myrte Strik3,4, Gustavo Noffs1,2,5,6
1Department of Neuroscience, School of Translational Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia.
Brain Communications
|June 7, 2024
Summary
Multiple sclerosis patients often have speech problems (dysarthria) due to axonal damage in key brain tracts, particularly the sensorimotor and arcuate fasciculus. This damage correlates with cerebellar dysfunction and impacts speech quality and reading speed.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Neurology
- Speech Science
Background:
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) frequently causes communication deficits, specifically dysarthria, affecting motor speech production.
- The underlying neuroanatomical causes of MS-related dysarthria, despite links to cerebellar dysfunction and lesion load, are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neuroanatomical substrates of dysarthria in multiple sclerosis using advanced MRI techniques.
- To correlate white matter integrity and regional brain volumes with clinical measures of disease severity and speech performance.
Main Methods:
- Structural and diffusion MRI scans were acquired from 52 MS patients and 14 healthy controls.
- Clinical assessments included disease severity, cerebellar dysfunction scales, and a battery of motor speech tasks.
- Fixel-based analysis examined white matter tracts (interhemispheric sensorimotor, cerebello-thalamo-cortical, arcuate fasciculus) and volumetric analysis targeted specific brain regions.
Main Results:
- MS participants exhibited poorer performance on all motor speech tasks compared to controls.
- Significant white matter tract atrophy was observed in MS patients across all tracts of interest.
- Axonal damage in specific tracts correlated with reduced speech naturalness and reading rate, and with cerebellar dysfunction measures.
Conclusions:
- Axonal damage, detectable via diffusion MRI metrics, is a key factor underlying dysarthria in multiple sclerosis.
- While MS patients showed reduced thalamus and corpus callosum volumes, these did not directly correlate with dysarthria measures.
- The findings highlight the importance of white matter integrity in preserving speech function in MS.
