Boissoneault, Jeff, Letzen, Janelle, Lai, Song et al. · Magnetic resonance imaging · 2016 · DOI
This study used a special brain imaging technique to look at how different parts of the brain communicate with each other in ME/CFS patients compared to healthy people. Researchers found that people with ME/CFS have unusual patterns of brain communication, particularly in areas related to memory, thinking, and movement. Importantly, the strength of connections in memory-related brain regions was linked to how severe patients' fatigue symptoms were.
This is the first study to use ASL-based connectivity analysis in ME/CFS, providing novel neurobiological evidence that abnormal brain network communication may underlie the disease. The correlation between memory-related brain connectivity and fatigue severity suggests a biological mechanism linking brain dysfunction to core ME/CFS symptoms, potentially opening avenues for targeted neurorehabilitation approaches.
This study does not establish whether abnormal brain connectivity causes ME/CFS symptoms or results from the disease process. The small sample size and cross-sectional design limit generalizability and prevent determination of causality. The findings cannot explain why these connectivity changes occur or whether they are unique to ME/CFS versus other fatiguing conditions.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Boissoneault, Jeff, Letzen, Janelle, Lai, Song, O'Shea, Andrew, Craggs, Jason, Robinson, Michael E, et al. (2016). Abnormal resting state functional connectivity in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: an arterial spin-labeling fMRI study.. Magnetic resonance imaging. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mri.2015.12.008
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-boissoneault-2016-abnormal-resting,
author = {Boissoneault, Jeff and Letzen, Janelle and Lai, Song and O'Shea, Andrew and Craggs, Jason and Robinson, Michael E and Staud, Roland},
title = {Abnormal resting state functional connectivity in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: an arterial spin-labeling fMRI study.},
journal = {Magnetic resonance imaging},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1016/j.mri.2015.12.008},
note = {PubMed: 26708036},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/boissoneault-2016-abnormal-resting},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/boissoneault-2016-abnormal-resting
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