Multivariate data analysis suggests the link between brain microstructure and cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects gray matter (GM), usually devoted to executive functions possibly susceptible of cognitive impairment. Potentially, diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) can highlight microstructural changes associated with the cognitive impairment. Aiming at shading lights on the joint variation between the cognitive assessment in MS and the dMRI derived GM microstructural alterations, we fitted a Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression to data collected on a cohort of 36 patients. Results showed that 45% variation of the data can be explained by an anti-correlation between anisotropy and restriction dMRI features, and diffusivity ones, together with relevant neuropsychological tests scores. Moreover, the data projected to the PLS derived latent space were distinguishable between cognitively impaired and preserved individuals, with a model significance p < 0.05.