Altered Functional Activation Is Associated With Speech Dysfunction in People With Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that is a common symptom of cerebellar dysfunction in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). Despite its prevalence, little is known regarding changes in brain functioning associated with dysarthria in this cohort. Management strategies for cerebellar symptoms such as dysarthria are also limited. Fifty-five pwMS and 14 healthy controls participated in this study. We used fMRI to assess changes in speech related functional activation associated with MS, and split our MS cohort into people with and without dysarthria, and with and without cerebellar dysfunction clinically evident as upper limb action tremor. We found that pwMS performed worse on speech pro..