Functional faults

Abstract

Functional MRI (fMRI) has tremendous potential to evaluate and better understand multiple sclerosis (MS). Unlike conventional anatomic approaches in assessment of disease progression in MS, fMRI monitors pathway and network-specific brain function during performance of individual tasks. In this issue of Neurology ®, Rocca et al.1 report how fMRI provides unique insights into brain function and adaptation to disease that cannot be attained from relatively nonspecific whole brain anatomic images. Rocca et al.1 used fMRI to study the mirror neuron system in patients with MS. The mirror neuron system is believed to play a role in the understanding of actions and motor imagery. Subjects performed both a simple motor task and a passive task to test the mirror neuron system that consisted of observing the same simple motor task performed by another subject. Patients with MS showed greater fMRI activation during both the motor task and the mirror neuron task vs control subjects. There was a group interaction between the two tasks in several brain regions, one of which is part of the mirror neuron system. The authors suggest that the findings represent adaptive changes within the brain, and specifically within the mirror neuron …