Reduced dynamics of functional connectivity and cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis

Background:In multiple sclerosis (MS), abnormalities of brain network dynamics and their relevance for cognitive impairment have never been investigated.Objectives:The aim of this study was to assess the dynamic resting state (RS) functional connectivity (FC) on 62 relapsing-remitting MS patients and 65 sex-matched healthy controls enrolled at 7 European sites.Methods:MS patients underwent clinical and cognitive evaluation. Between-group network FC differences were evaluated using a dynamic approach (based on sliding-window correlation analysis) and grouping correlation matrices into recurrent FC states.Results:Dynamic FC analysis revealed, in healthy controls and MS patients, three recurrent FC states: two characterized by strong intra- and inter-network connectivity and one characterized by weak inter-network connectivity (State 3). A total of 23 MS patients were cognitively impaired (CI). Compared to cognitively preserved (CP), CI-MS patients had reduced RS-FC between subcortical and default-mode netwo...