The study was conducted at the Rocco Ortenzio Neuroimaging Center at Kessler Foundation, with 62 individuals with relapsing-remitting MS. All completed questionnaires measuring depression, state and trait anxiety, and trait fatigue. While in the scanner, participants underwent a cognitively fatiguing task. In addition to measuring rate of cognitive fatigue, researchers measured whole brain lesion volume and performance during the fatigue-inducing task. “We found that the cognitive rate related to white matter tracts, many with associations with the basal ganglia or what has been proposed as the ‘fatigue network’,” said lead author Dr. Román. “These findings bring us closer to understanding how brain pathology impacts the experience in the moment. This is fundamental to developing effective interventions for managing the disabling fatigue of MS and other neurological conditions.”

A study by Human Brain Project (HBP) researchers has identified a new marker for predicting the clinical outcome of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) through magnetoencephalography. This marker can be measured in the brain during its resting state and reflects the ‘functional repertoire’, a measurement of the flexibility of the brain. The scientists found that a restriction of the functional repertoire corresponded to a more severe functional impairment. The more flexible the brain, the better the clinical outcome.

Among 80 participants of the NKF Patient Network, a national US kidney disease registry, 60% were not aware of their kidney function level.

A research team from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), have found that Synechococcus and the bacteria that feed on them may have an inherent tendency toward mutualism and will undergo significant changes to encourage each other’s survival.

Drawn from more than 20 years of observations at Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, researchers documented lasting social ties between individual chimpanzees and gorillas that persisted over years and across different contexts. The research was conducted by scientists from Washington University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago) and is reported in the journal iScience.