Inderyas, Maira, Thapaliya, Kiran, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2026 · DOI
This study used advanced brain imaging to compare how the brains of ME/CFS patients, long COVID patients, and healthy people work during a challenging thinking task. Researchers found that patients' brains show different patterns of communication between regions compared to healthy controls, particularly in areas related to motivation, memory, and emotional processing. These brain differences appeared to worsen as fatigue built up during the task.
This research provides potential brain-based markers (biomarkers) that could help objectively identify ME/CFS and long COVID at the neurobiological level. Understanding how brain regions fail to coordinate properly during cognitive effort could explain why patients experience worsening fatigue and cognitive dysfunction with activity, ultimately supporting better diagnosis and targeted treatments.
This cross-sectional study cannot establish cause-and-effect relationships—abnormal brain connectivity patterns may be consequences of illness rather than causes. The findings cannot determine whether these brain differences would improve with treatment or whether they could predict disease progression. Small sample sizes and single time-point assessment limit generalizability and cannot establish whether these patterns are stable diagnostic markers.
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
Inderyas, Maira, Thapaliya, Kiran, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya, & Barnden, Leighton (2026). Distinct functional connectivity patterns in myalgic encephalomyelitis and long COVID patients during cognitive fatigue: a 7 Tesla task-fMRI study.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-026-07708-y
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-inderyas-2026-distinct-functional,
author = {Inderyas, Maira and Thapaliya, Kiran and Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya and Barnden, Leighton},
title = {Distinct functional connectivity patterns in myalgic encephalomyelitis and long COVID patients during cognitive fatigue: a 7 Tesla task-fMRI study.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-026-07708-y},
note = {PubMed: 41559785},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/inderyas-2026-distinct-functional},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/inderyas-2026-distinct-functional
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