Evaluating the effects of brain injury, disease and tasks on cognitive fatigue

Because cognitive fatigue (CF) is common and debilitating following brain injury or disease we investigated the relationships among CF, behavioral performance, and cerebral activation within and across populations by combining the data from two cross-sectional studies. Individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) were included to model CF resulting from neurological disease; individuals who had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) were included to model CF resulting from neurological insult; both groups were compared with a control group (Controls). CF was induced while neuroimaging data was acquired using two different tasks. CF significantly differed between the groups, with the clinical groups reporting more CF than Controls—a difference that was statistically significant for the TBI group and trended towards significance for the MS group. The accrual of CF did not differ across the three groups; and CF ratings were consistent across tasks. Increasing CF was associated with longer response time for all groups. The brain activation in the caudate nucleus and the thalamus was consistently correlated with CF in all three groups, while more dorsally in the caudate, activation differed across the groups. These results suggest the caudate and thalamus to be central to CF while more dorsal aspects of the caudate may be sensitive to damage associated with particular types of insult.