Article

Multiple sclerosis (MS) can be accompanied by motor, cognitive, and
sensory impairments. Additionally, MS patients often report fatigue as one of
their most debilitating symptoms. It is, therefore, expected that MS patients
will have difficulties in performing cognitive-motor dual tasks (DTs), especially
in a fatiguing condition. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether MS patients are more
challenged by a DT than controls in a fatiguing and less-fatiguing condition and
whether DT performance is associated with perceived fatigue. METHODS: A group of
19 MS patients and 19 age-, sex-, and education-matched controls performed a
cognitive task (2-choice reaction time task) separately or concurrent with a
low-force or a high-force motor task (index finger abduction at 10% or 30%
maximal voluntary contraction). RESULTS: MS patients performed less well on a
cognitive task than controls. Cognitive task performance under DT conditions
decreased more for MS patients. Moreover, under high-force DT conditions,
cognitive performance declined in both groups but to a larger degree for MS
patients. Besides a decline in cognitive task performance, MS patients also
showed a stronger decrease in motor performance under high-force DT conditions.
DT costs were positively related to perceived fatigue as measured by
questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with controls, MS patients performed less
well on DTs as demonstrated by a reduction in both cognitive and motor
performances. This performance decrease was stronger under fatiguing conditions
and was related to the sense of fatigue of MS patients. These data illustrate
problems that MS patients may encounter in daily life because of their fatigue.
CI - (c) The Author(s) 2014.

Langue : ANGLAIS