Trial reportNeuroImage. Clinical2019
Frontal brain activity and cognitive processing speed in multiple sclerosis: An exploration of EEG neurofeedback training.
Trial report in NeuroImage. Clinical, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Examining electroencephalogram signatures of people with multiple sclerosis using a nonlinear dynamics approach: a systematic review and bibliographic analysis.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- The Feasibility and Test-Retest Reliability of Wireless Dry-Electrode EEG During a Dynamic Psychomotor Virtual Reality Task.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Evaluating the impact of task-sequencing on cognitive and motor performance in MS: PASAT and 3-minute walk test order effects.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Cognitive-motor interference in multiple sclerosis revisited: a dual-task paradigm using wearable inertial sensors and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Test-Retest Reliability of EEG Aperiodic Components in Resting and Mental Task States.Brain topography · 2024Article
- Stability, change, and reliable individual differences in electroencephalography measures: A lifespan perspective on progress and opportunities.NeuroImage · 2023Review
- EEG-Neurofeedback as a Potential Therapeutic Approach for Cognitive Deficits in Patients with Dementia, Multiple Sclerosis, Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Correlation Between Resting Theta Power and Cognitive Performance in Patients With Schizophrenia.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Mindfulness training during brief periods of hospitalization in multiple sclerosis (MS): beneficial alterations in fatigue and the mediating role of depression.BMC neurology · 2021Article
- MRI correlates of cognitive improvement after home-based EEG neurofeedback training in patients with multiple sclerosis: a pilot study.Journal of neurology · 2021Article
- Trait mindfulness is primarily associated with depression and not with fatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS): implications for mindfulness-based interventions.BMC neurology · 2021Article
- Altered phase and nonphase EEG activity expose impaired maintenance of a spatial-object attentional focus in multiple sclerosis patients.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Frontal Beta Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Improves Reversal Learning.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2020Article
- An Efficient Approach for Driver Drowsiness Detection at Moderate Drowsiness Level Based on Electroencephalography Signal and Vehicle Dynamics Data.Journal of medical signals and sensorsArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCognitive deficits including impaired information processing speed as assessed by the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) are common in multiple sclerosis (MS). Oscillatory markers of processing speed may be extracted from magnetoencephalographic (MEG) and electroencephalographic (EEG) resting-state recordings. In this context, an increased proportion of frontal slow-wave (theta, 4-8 Hz) to fast-wave (beta, 13-30 Hz) EEG activity was indicative of impaired SDMT performance. Such an increased theta/beta ratio may reflect oscillatory slowing associated with deficits in attention control. Therapeutic approaches that consider atypical oscillatory activity in MS remain sparse.
objectivesIn a cross-sectional design, we examined the relation between SDMT performance, the EEG theta/beta ratio and its components. We also explored longitudinally, whether EEG neurofeedback could be used to induce a putatively adaptive alteration in these EEG parameters, toward a pattern indicative of improved processing speed.
methodsN = 58 MS patients (RRMS/SPMS/PPMS N: 18/35/3, 2 cases excluded) participated in a neuropsychological examination and a resting-state EEG recording. Subsequently, N = 10 patients received neurofeedback training for two weeks in a hospitalized setting. The purpose was to reduce the frontal theta/beta ratio through operant conditioning.
resultsIn the cross-sectional examination, patients with slow SDMT speed displayed an increased theta/beta ratio, relative to those with normal speed. This involved increased frontal theta power, whereas beta power was equal across groups. The theta/beta ratio remained stable during neurofeedback across sessions of the two-week training period. In an exploratory secondary analysis, within sessions a reduction in the theta/beta ratio during active training blocks relative pre/post session resting-states was observed, driven by reduced theta power.
conclusionsThese findings provide support for utilizing frontal EEG theta activity as an inverse marker of processing speed in MS. Across sessions, there was no support for successful operant conditioning of the theta/beta ratio during the two-week training period. The observed state-specific shift within sessions, involving a transient reduction in theta activity, nevertheless may provide a rationale for a further investigation of neurofeedback as a treatment approach in MS.
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