Deficits in tongue motor control are linked to microstructural brain damage in multiple sclerosis: a pilot study.

Holtbernd, Florian; Deppe, Michael; Bachmann, Rainald; Mohammadi, Siawoosh; Ringelstein, Erich B.; Reilmann, Ralf

Background: Deterioration of fine motor control of the tongue is common in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and has a major impact on quality of life. However, the underlying neuronal substrate is largely unknown. Here, we aimed to explore the association of tongue motor dysfunction in MS patients with overall clinical disability and structural brain damage.Methods: We employed a force transducer based quantitative-motor system (Q-Motor) to objectively assess tongue function in 33 patients with MS. The variability of tongue force output (TFV) and the mean applied tongue force (TF) were measured during an isometric tongue protrusion task. Twenty-three age and gender matched healthy volunteers served as controls. Correlation analyses of motor performance in MS patients with individual disease burden as expressed by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and with microstructural brain damage as measured by the fractional anisotropy (FA) on Diffusion Tensor Imaging were performed.Results: MS patients showed significantly increased TFV and decreased TF compared to controls (p Conclusions: Changes in TFV were more robust and correlated better with disease phenotype and FA changes than TF. TFV might serve as an objective and non-invasive outcome measure to augment the quantitative assessment of motor dysfunction in MS.

MULTIPLE sclerosis; TONGUE physiology; BRAIN damage; MOTOR ability; PILOT projects; STATISTICAL correlation; HEALTH outcome assessment; BRAIN stem; MAGNETIC resonance imaging; TONGUE; TRANSDUCERS; CASE-control method; NEURAL pathways

BMC Neurology, 2015, Vol 15, Issue 1, p1

1471-2377

Academic Journal

10.1186/s12883-015-0451-9