FMRI in multiple sclerosis

In multiple sclerosis (MS) conventional, structural and modern functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) techniques have been extensively used for studies and to understand its mechanism responsible for the accumulation of irreversible disability. Multiple sclerosis (MS), is a disease in which phys ical and cognitive deficit not only reflect structu ral damage, but also functional damage between the brain networks. Cognitive dysfunction in MS occurs during several stages of disease duration. MS with severity of cognitive manifestation is not closely related to indicate structural brain damage. Brain network and neuroplasticity may contribute to maintain the normal performances despite of the brain lesion. Most of the fMRI studi es reported, changes in functional reorganization of cerebral cortex is see n in MS and hence provides to understand how brain networks and reorganization changes in MS. Resting-state functio nal magnetic resonance imaging allows to investig ate intrinsic, synchronized brain activity across the whole brain, and to measure the degree of functional correlatio n between different cortical regions. This functional reorganization of the brai n might be help full for the studies of the effect of rehabilitation and pharmacological therapy of the brain plasticity esp ecially in different stages of the disease. In this study we try to focus on what kind of brain activity have been reported during th e fMRI in MS of different phenotypes. This review describes the major findings obtained in MS patients at different clini cal stages using resting state fMRI and discusses h ow the use of fMRI techniques may improve our ability to identify nove l biomarkers useful in the context of the diagnosti c work-up, establishing prognosis and monitoring treatment.