Uit Japans onderzoek blijkt dat jongeren met ME/CVS meer hersendelen in de frontale cortex

activeren teneinde complexere cognitieve opdrachten op een aanvaardbaar niveau uit te voeren.

De activering was direct gerelateerd aan de prestatie, motivatie (!) en "vermoeidheid".

Vrij vertaald: patiënten willen goed presteren, maar moeten een veel grotere inspanning leveren.

Uit onderzoek is al eerder gebleken dat de hersenen van patiënten harder moeten werken

om op een "aanvaardbaar" niveau te kunnen functioneren: klik hier, hier en hier.

Wellicht moeten mensen die beweren dat "het ziektebeeld een deel van de persoonlijkheid is"

(klik hier) of patiënten niet goed hun best doen bij neuropsychologische testen (klik hier)

de medische literatuur eens wat beter gaan bestuderen...

Less efficient and costly processes of frontal cortex in childhood chronic fatigue syndrome.

NeuroImage: Clinical. 2015 Sep 10. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2015.09.001.

Mizuno K, Tanaka M, Tanabe HC, Joudoi T, Kawatani J, Shigihara Y,

Tomoda A, Miike T, Imai-Matsumura K, Sadato N, Watanabe Y.

Highlights

• Decrease in divided attention was related to fatigue in childhood and adolescence.
• Left frontal cortex of healthy students activated in verbal divided attention task
• Right MFG and ACG were additionally activated in CCFS patients.
• CCFS is characterized as an energy-inefficient process in frontal cortex.

Abstract

The ability to divide one's attention deteriorates

in patients with childhood chronic fatigue syndrome (CCFS).

We conducted a study using a dual verbal task

to assess allocation of attentional resources

to two simultaneous activities

(picking out vowels [klanken, FT] and reading for story comprehension) and

functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Patients exhibited a much larger area of activation, recruiting additional frontal areas:

1. The right middle frontal gyrus (MFG),

which is included in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, of CCFS patients

was specifically activated in both the single and dual tasks;

this activation level was positively correlated with motivation scores for the tasks and

accuracy of story comprehension; and

2. In patients, the dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus (dACC) and left MFG

were activated only in the dual task, and

activation levels of the dACC and left MFG

were positively associated with the motivation and fatigue scores, respectively.

Patients with CCFS exhibited

a wider area of activated frontal regions related to attentional resources

in order to increase their poorer task performance with massive mental effort.

This is likely to be less efficient and costly in terms of energy requirements.

It seems to be related to the pathophysiology of patients with CCFS and

to cause a vicious cycle of further increases in fatigue.

Keywords

Children and adolescents;

Chronic fatigue syndrome;

Cognitive compensation;

Divided attention;

Frontal cortex;

Functional magnetic resonance imaging.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213158215001618