Poster No:
938
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Francisco Mercado1, David Ferrera1, Paloma Barjola1, Alberto Carpio1, Roberto Fernandes1, María Carmen Martín-Buro1
Institutions:
1Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Madrid
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Cognitive dysfunction is currently recognized as one of the most disabling symptoms in fibromyalgia, surpassing even the impact of pain itself. Evidence from neuropsychological investigations indicates that this dysfunction becomes more pronounced during high-demand executive function tasks, suggesting an abnormal functioning within the cerebral cortices of the frontal-parietal network. Specifically, individuals with fibromyalgia report difficulties when daily activities require them to handle multiple sources of information simultaneously, as these stimuli compete for the same processing resources. Given that cognitive processing involves rapid stages encompassing various mental operations, electroencephalographic activity was recorded and analyzed through event-related potentials.
Methods:
Forty-three right-handed women participated in the experiment, including nineteen fibromyalgia patients and twenty-four healthy subjects, with ages ranging from 33 to 66 years. The psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm was employed in the experimental setting to study dual-task interference, analyzing both behavioral and neural responses. In each trial, two different visual stimuli (S1 and S2) were presented, each requiring independent responses. S1 comprised two types of geometric figures (a blue square or a red square), while S2 was either the letter 'O' or the letter 'X'. This dual-task paradigm, adapted from Luck (1998), involved stimuli presented against a black background for 100 ms, with the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) manipulated across three conditions (100, 250, or 400 ms). This manipulation resulted in three task conditions, with shorter SOAs producing more intense interference in response selection and increasing the reaction time to S2 associated with stimulus categorization. The amplitude of the P3 component, known for modulating its amplitude when processing resources need to be shared between tasks was analyzed. Thus, the probability of S2 occurrence was manipulated with frequent (75%) and infrequent (25%) alternatives.
Results:
Behavioral analyses revealed a main effect of SOA, indicating that shorter SOAs (100 ms) led to higher response times than longer SOA conditions (250 and 400 ms). Additionally, fibromyalgia patients exhibited longer reaction times compared to healthy subjects. At the neural level, the P3 wave's amplitude at parietal sites significantly increased at shorter SOAs for patients with fibromyalgia compared to healthy subjects. The augmented response times in fibromyalgia patients suggested a reduction in the availability of cognitive resources for identifying and categorizing S2. However, the increase of P3 amplitude at short SOAs in fibromyalgia patients likely indicated an inefficient use of cognitive resources when they faced with the need to share them between two sources of stimulation, even during seemingly simple tasks involving stimulus categorization.
Conclusions:
The findings suggest that experimental conditions involving a high demand for cognitive resources (dual tasks with short SOAs) can reveal cognitive dysfunctions in fibromyalgia. Nevertheless, further research is necessary to fully comprehend and define dysfunctional cognition in fibromyalgia. This research was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain (MICINN; grant PID2020-115463RB-I00).
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
EEG/MEG Modeling and Analysis 2
Keywords:
Cognition
Electroencephaolography (EEG)
Pain
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
-Luck, S. J. (1998). Sources of dual-task interference: Evidence from human electrophysiology. Psychological Science. 9 (3), 223-227.
-Dick, B. D.; Verrier, M. J.; Harker, K. T. & Rashiq, S. (2008). Disruption of cognitive function in Fibromyalgia Syndrome. Pain. 139, 610-616.
-Samartin-Veiga N, González-Villar AJ, Carrillo de la Peña MT (2019). Neural correlates of cognitive dysfunction in fibromyalgia patients: Reduced brain electrical activity during the execution of a cognitive control task. Neuroimage Clin. 23:101817
-Seo J, Kim S-H, Kim Y-T, et al. (2012). Working memory impairment in fibromyalgia patients associated with altered frontoparietal memory network. PLoS One;7(6):e37808.
Mercado, F; Ferrera, D; Fernandes-Magalhaes, R; Peláez, I; Barjola, P. (2021). Altered sub-processes of working memory in fibromyalgia patients: An ERP study using N-back task. Pain Medicine. 23(3):475-487