Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37672569›Full record

ArticleHuman brain mapping2023

The spectral slope as a marker of excitation/inhibition ratio and cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis.

Fahimeh Akbarian, Chiara Rossi, Lars Costers, Marie B D'hooghe, Miguel D'haeseleer, Guy Nagels, Jeroen Van Schependom

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Human brain mapping, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
6.4field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  4. Dissociating Contributions of Theta and Alpha Oscillations from Aperiodic Neural Activity in Human Visual Working Memory.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026
    Article
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  14. Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis: from phenomenology to neurobiological mechanisms.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2024
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Fahimeh AkbarianDepartment of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0002-1623-6005
Chiara RossiDepartment of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Lars CostersAIMS Lab, Center for Neurosciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Marie B D'hoogheNational MS Center Melsbroek, Melsbroek, Belgium.
Miguel D'haeseleerNational MS Center Melsbroek, Melsbroek, Belgium.
Guy NagelsAIMS Lab, Center for Neurosciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Jeroen Van SchependomDepartment of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel · BENational MS Center MelsbroekUniversitair Ziekenhuis Brussel · BE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by neuronal and synaptic loss, resulting in an imbalance of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission and potentially cognitive impairment. Current methods for measuring the excitation/inhibition (E/I) ratio are mostly invasive, but recent research combining neurocomputational modeling with measurements of local field potentials has indicated that the slope with which the power spectrum of neuronal activity captured by electro- and/or magnetoencephalography rolls off, is a non-invasive biomarker of the E/I ratio. A steeper roll-off is associated with a stronger inhibition. This novel method can be applied to assess the E/I ratio in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS), detect the effect of medication such as benzodiazepines, and explore its utility as a biomarker for cognition. We recruited 44 healthy control subjects and 95 pwMS who underwent resting-state magnetoencephalographic recordings. The 1/f spectral slope of the neural power spectra was calculated for each subject and for each brain region. As expected, the spectral slope was significantly steeper in pwMS treated with benzodiazepines (BZDs) compared to pwMS not receiving BZDs (p = .01). In the sub-cohort of pwMS not treated with BZDs, we observed a steeper slope in cognitively impaired pwMS compared to cognitively preserved pwMS (p = .01) and healthy subjects (p = .02). Furthermore, we observed a significant correlation between 1/f spectral slope and verbal and spatial working memory functioning in the brain regions located in the prefrontal and parietal cortex. In this study, we highlighted the value of the spectral slope in MS by quantifying the effect of benzodiazepines and by putting it forward as a potential biomarker of cognitive deficits in pwMS.

Indexed as

Multiple SclerosisNeurodegenerative DiseasesBenzodiazepinesBiomarkersCognitionHumansBenzodiazepinesBiomarkers1/f spectral slopeaperiodicaperiodic exponentexcitation/inhibition balancemagnetoencephalographyresting statespectral power

Identifiers

PMID37672569
PMCPMC10619404
OpenAlexW4386470715

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.