Visuo-Cognitive Phenotypes in Early Multiple Sclerosis: A Multisystem Model of Visual Processing.

Background: Cognitive impairment can emerge in the earliest stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), with heterogeneity in cognitive deficits often hindering symptom identification and management. Sensory-motor dysfunction, such as visual processing impairment, is also common in early disease and can impact neuropsychological task performance in MS. However, cognitive phenotype research in MS does not currently consider the relationship between early cognitive changes and visual processing impairment.

Spike and wave discharges detection in genetic absence epilepsy rat from Strasbourg and patients with genetic generalized epilepsy.

Objective: Generalised spike and wave discharges (SWDs) are pathognomonic EEG signatures for diagnosing absence seizures in patients with Genetic Generalized Epilepsy (GGE). The Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) is one of the best-validated animal models of GGE with absence seizures.

Methods: We developed an SWDs detector for both GAERS rodents and GGE patients with absence seizures using a neural network method.

Behavioral measures of cortical hyperexcitability assessed in people who experience visual snow.

Objective: To determine whether visual perceptual measures in people who experience visual snow are consistent with an imbalance between inhibition and excitation in visual cortex.

Methods: Sixteen patients with visual snow and 18 controls participated. Four visual tasks were included: center-surround contrast matching, luminance increment detection in noise, and global form and global motion coherence thresholds.

Impairment of Smooth Pursuit as a Marker of Early Multiple Sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a diffuse disease that disrupts wide-ranging cerebral networks. The control of saccades and smooth pursuit are similarly dependent upon widespread networks, with the assessment of pursuit offering an opportunity to examine feedback regulation. We sought to characterize pursuit deficits in MS and to examine their relationship with disease duration.

Ocular motor signatures of cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis.

The anatomical and functional overlap between ocular motor command circuitry and the higher-order networks that form the scaffolding for cognition makes for a compelling hypothesis that measures of ocular motility could provide a means to sensitively interrogate cognitive dysfunction in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Such an approach may ultimately provide objective and reproducible measures of cognitive dysfunction that offer an innovative capability to refine diagnosis, improve prognostication, and more accurately codify disease burden. A further dividend may be the validation and application of biomarkers that can be used in studies aimed at identifying and monitoring preventative, protective and even restorative properties of novel neurotherapeutics in MS.