title: Functional cerebral changes in multiple sclerosis patients during an autobiographical memory test.
abstract: Our aim was to investigate the functional underpinnings of autobiographical memory (AM) impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. To that end, 18 patients and 18 controls underwent the autobiographical interview (AI). Subsequently, the 36 participants underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session designed to assess the construction and elaboration of AMs. A categorical control task was also presented. Patients were trained in the fMRI procedure to optimise the procedural aspects accompanying the task itself. Although the patients obtained significantly poorer AI scores (p < .001), their performance on the easier AM fMRI task was efficiently carried out, allowing relevant comparisons with healthy controls. Relatively to healthy controls, the patients showed increased and bilateral cerebral activations (p < .005) during the construction and elaboration phases. The prefrontal, temporal and posterior cerebral region activations were located within the core network sustaining AM, with the bilateral prefrontal region being centrally involved. The parametric neural responses to the difficulty of access and amount of details of memories were also significantly different for the two groups, with the right hippocampal region showing a particularly increased recruitment (p < .005). The findings suggested the presence of functional cerebral changes during AM performance and supported the presence of AM retrieval deficit in MS patients.
authors.affiliation: a Cognitive Neuropsychology and Physiopathology of Schizophrenia (INSERM UMR 1114) , Strasbourg , France.|b Department of Psychology , University of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.|c ICube (CNRS UMR 7357) , Strasbourg , France.|d Fédération de Médecine translationnelle de Strasbourg (FMTS) , Strasbourg , France.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Noblet
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.
authors.forename: Ekaterina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Denkova
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.|c ICube (CNRS UMR 7357) , Strasbourg , France.|d Fédération de Médecine translationnelle de Strasbourg (FMTS) , Strasbourg , France.|e Department of Neurology and Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche (CMRR) , University Hospital of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Blanc
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.|e Department of Neurology and Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche (CMRR) , University Hospital of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.|f Clinical Investigation Centre (CIC, INSERM 1434) , University Hospital of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Seze
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.|c ICube (CNRS UMR 7357) , Strasbourg , France.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gounot
authors.affiliation: a Cognitive Neuropsychology and Physiopathology of Schizophrenia (INSERM UMR 1114) , Strasbourg , France.|b Department of Psychology , University of Strasbourg , Strasbourg , France.
authors.forename: Liliann
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Manning
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001519:Behavior; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D056344:Executive Function; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000473:pathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020529:Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D014796:Visual Perception; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology
keywords: Autobiographical interview; Autobiographical memory; Cerebral activation changes; Functional MRI; Multiple sclerosis