ArticleBrain communications2021
Cognitive fatigue in multiple sclerosis is associated with alterations in the functional connectivity of monoamine circuits.
Article in Brain communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Menopause and neurological disorders: a roadmap for research.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2026Review
- Investigating the Contribution of Molecular-Enriched Functional Connectivity to Brain-Age Analysis.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Functional connectivity dynamics of monoaminergic circuits related to fatigue in multiple sclerosis.Journal of neurology · 2026Article
- The Relationship Between Subjective and Objective Fatigue Assessment Approaches in Multiple Sclerosis: A Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2026Review
- Exercise-Induced modulation of molecular-enriched functional connectivity in Parkinson's disease.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
- Time-Varying Brain Functional Reconfiguration Patterns Associated With Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis.Human brain mapping · 2026Observational
- Mapping the neural and molecular basis underlying fatigue in Parkinson's disease.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2025Article
- Investigating the Contribution of Molecular-Enriched Functional Connectivity to Brain-Age Analysis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Molecular-Informed Network Analysis Unveils Fatigue-Related Functional Connectivity in Parkinson's Disease.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2025Observational
- The Importance of Regulatory Network Structure for Complex Trait Heritability and Evolution.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- White matter volume and microstructural integrity are associated with fatigue in relapsing multiple sclerosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Fatigue in multiple sclerosis: still elusive after all these years.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Changes in neurotransmitter-related functional connectivity along the Alzheimer's disease continuum.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Monoaminergic network abnormalities are associated with fatigue in pediatric multiple sclerosis.Journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Exploring Sleep Architecture in Polish Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Polysomnography Study.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Resting state functional connectivity modifications in monoaminergic circuits underpin fatigue development in patients with multiple sclerosis.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
- Normative modelling of molecular-based functional circuits captures clinical heterogeneity transdiagnostically in psychiatric patients.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Advanced MRI Techniques: Diagnosis and Follow-Up of Multiple Sclerosis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Monoaminergic network dysfunction and development of depression in multiple sclerosis: a longitudinal investigation.Journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Understanding the mechanisms of fatigue in multiple sclerosis: linking interoception, metacognition and white matter dysconnectivity.Brain communications · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fatigue is a highly prevalent and debilitating symptom in multiple sclerosis, but currently the available treatment options have limited efficacy. The development of innovative and efficacious targeted treatments for fatigue in multiple sclerosis has been marred by the limited knowledge of the underlying mechanisms. One of the hypotheses postulates that multiple sclerosis pathology might cause reduced monoaminergic release in the central nervous system with consequences on motivation, mood and attention. Here, we applied the recently developed Receptor-Enriched Analysis of Functional Connectivity by Targets method to investigate whether patients with high and low fatigue differ in the functional connectivity (FC) of the monoamine circuits in the brain. We recruited 55 patients with multiple sclerosis, which were then classified as highly fatigued or mildly fatigued based on their scores on the cognitive sub-scale of the Modified Fatigue Impact scale. We acquired resting-state functional MRI scans and derived individual maps of connectivity associated with the distribution of the dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin transporters as measured by positron emission tomography. We found that patients with high fatigue present decreased noradrenaline transporter (NAT)-enriched connectivity in several frontal and prefrontal areas when compared to those with lower fatigue. The NAT-enriched FC predicted negatively individual cognitive fatigue scores. Our findings support the idea that alterations in the catecholaminergic functional circuits underlie fatigue in multiple sclerosis and identify the NAT as a putative therapeutic target directed to pathophysiology.
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