Similar neural pathways link psychological stress and brain-age in health and multiple sclerosis

Clinical and neuroscientific studies suggest a link between psychological stress and reduced brain health in health and neurological disease but it is unclear whether mediating pathways are similar. Consequently, we applied an arterial-spin-labeling MRI stress task in 42 healthy persons and 56 with multiple sclerosis, and investigated regional neural stress responses, associations between functional connectivity of stress-responsive regions and the brain-age prediction error, a highly sensitive machine learning brain health biomarker, and regional brain-age constituents in both groups. Stress responsivity did not differ between groups. Although elevated brain-age prediction errors indicated worse brain health in patients, anterior insula–occipital cortex (healthy persons: occipital pole; patients: fusiform gyrus) functional connectivity correlated with brain-age prediction errors in both groups. Finally, also gray matter contributed similarly to regional brain-age across groups. These findings might suggest a common stress–brain health pathway whose impact is amplified in multiple sclerosis by disease-specific vulnerability factors

Similar neural pathways link psychological stress and brain health in health and multiple sclerosis

Clinical and neuroscientific studies suggest a link between psychological stress and reduced brain health - in healthy humans and patients with neurological disorders. However, it is unclear which neural pathways mediate between stress and brain health and whether these pathways are similar in health and disease. Here, we applied an Arterial-Spin-Labeling MRI stress task in 42 healthy persons and 56 with multiple sclerosis. We tested whether brain-predicted age differences (“brain-PAD”), a highly sensitive structural brain health biomarker derived from machine learning, mirror functional connectivity between stress-responsive regions. We found that regional neural stress responsivity did not differ between groups. Although elevated brain-PAD indicated worse brain health in patients, anterior insula-occipital functional connectivity correlated with brain-PAD in both groups. Grey matter variations contributed similarly to brain-PAD in both groups. These findings suggest a generic connection between stress and brain health whose impact is amplified in multiple sclerosis by disease-specific vulnerability factors