Attention control network impairments in ALS: from anatomy to disconnections

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder primarily affecting motor function, but a considerable proportion of patients also exhibit cognitive deficits, particularly in attention and executive functioning. These deficits are thought to arise from disruptions in attention control networks involving frontal, parietal, and subcortical brain regions. The present study aims to investigate the structural and functional brain changes associated with attention control deficits in ALS using neuroimaging techniques. Relevant papers which include datasets based on structural as well as functional data will be selected by following PRISMA guidelines during the literature search. A direct image lesion-mapping will be employed using the open-source software MRIcron to analyse the data. Volume-of-interest (VOIs) will then be delineated onto a template scan. These VOIs will then be overlaid to identify patterns of gray matter atrophy or lesions associated with attention and cognitive deficits in ALS patients. The study’s preliminary goal is to elucidate the presence of possible structural and functional neural correlates of attention control deficits in ALS by super-imposing VOIs and analysing them. It is hypothesized that ALS patients will exhibit gray matter atrophy in frontal, parietal, and subcortical regions. As found in previous studies, we expect these neuroimaging markers to correlate with impaired performance on neuropsychological tests of cognition and executive functioning.