People with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis\/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME\/CFS) and Long COVID experience a disruption to their brain connectivity during a mentally demanding task.<\/p>\n
The new Griffith University research, published today, used ultra-high field MRI technology to investigate the significant reduction in brain connectivity in specific parts of the brain.<\/p>\n
Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik from Griffith’s National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases said there were common symptoms experienced by people with ME\/CFS or Long COVID with this study focusing on neurological features.<\/p>\n
“The symptoms include cognitive difficulties, such as memory problems, difficulties with attention and concentration, and slowed thinking,” Professor Marshall-Gradisnik said.<\/p>\n
Lead author and PhD candidate Maira Inderyas said the study saw participants undertake a cognitive test while inside the MRI machine to gauge their brain activity.<\/p>\n
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The task, called a Stroop task, was displayed to the participants on a screen during the scan, and required participants to ignore conflicting information and focus on the correct response, which places high demands on the brain’s executive function and inhibitory control.<\/p>\n
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The set up allowed us to precisely measure which areas of the brain were activated while the patient was performing a mentally demanding task.<\/p>\n
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The scans show changes in the brain regions which may contribute to cognitive difficulties such as memory problems, difficulty concentrating, and slower thinking.”<\/p>\n
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Maira Inderyas,\u00a0lead author and PhD candidate\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The research supported what many people with ME\/CFS and Long COVID experience which was that cognitive effort was not just tiring but could have real neurological impacts, and adequate rest was not optional but essential.<\/p>\n
The ultra-high field MRI used in the study was one of only two available in Australia.<\/p>\n
The research was funded by ME Research UK and the Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation.<\/p>\n
The paper ‘Distinct functional connectivity patterns in myalgic encephalomyelitis and Long COVID patients during cognitive fatigue: a 7 Tesla task-fMRI study’ has been published in the Journal of Translational Medicine.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Journal reference:<\/p>\n
Inderyas, M., et al. (2026). Distinct functional connectivity patterns in myalgic encephalomyelitis and long COVID patients during cognitive fatigue: a 7 Tesla task-fMRI study.\u00a0Journal of Translational Medicine. doi: 10.1186\/s12967-026-07708-y.\u00a0https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/s12967-026-07708-y<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis\/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME\/CFS) and Long COVID experience a disruption to their brain connectivity during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,1362,1729,23224,23225,11744,137,1679,23226,337,15105,105],"class_list":["post-446717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brain","tag-chronic","tag-chronic-fatigue-syndrome","tag-encephalomyelitis","tag-fatigue","tag-health","tag-medicine","tag-myalgic-encephalomyelitis","tag-research","tag-syndrome","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}