Could warmer weather hamper brain function in people with MS?

By Mary Elizabeth Dallas
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) — Warmer temperatures might reduce the ability of people with multiple sclerosis to complete mental tasks and process information, new research suggests.

Although heat has long been linked to a worsening of symptoms among people with the inflammatory disease, it wasn’t clear exactly how the process worked. The new study used brain-imaging technology to focus on the areas of the brain affected by rising temperatures, the researchers said.

“We found there is a correlation between outdoor temperature and levels of brain activity,” said study principle investigator Victoria Leavitt, a research scientist at the Kessler Foundation in West Orange, N.J. “The amount of activity in people’s brains increases when the temperature is warm, and lowers when temperatures are lower.”

The researchers suggested that their findings could lead to the development of treatment strategies that may help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) cope with the effects of warmer weather on their quality of life.

The study involved 28 people with MS (26 women and 2 men) who had worse mental function on warmer days.

Using functional MRI, the researchers found that higher temperatures increased activity in certain parts of the brain — the frontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex — during simple mental tasks. This increase in brain activity was not seen in a comparison group of people who did not have MS.

“These areas of the brain that we’ve highlighted are referred to very generally as task-related areas of the brain,” Leavitt said. “They are involved in our ability to multitask, or process a lot of information and apply ourselves to the most important task at any given moment.” Leavitt said people with MS frequently report having trouble doing just that.

The findings were published online recently in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior,

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