Tanaka, Masaaki, Sadato, Norihiro, Okada, Tomohisa et al. · BMC neurology · 2006 · DOI
Researchers used brain imaging to compare how the brains of ME/CFS patients and healthy people responded to sounds while doing a tiring visual task. They found that healthy people's brains stayed responsive to sounds during the task, but ME/CFS patients' brains showed reduced responses to sounds—and this reduction matched how fatigued the patients felt. This suggests that ME/CFS may involve the brain becoming less able to process information that isn't directly related to the main task at hand.
This study provides neurobiological evidence that ME/CFS involves altered brain function during cognitive exertion, not simply effort avoidance or psychological factors. The objective brain imaging findings help validate the physical basis of ME/CFS and suggest that reduced stimulus processing may be a core neurological feature of the condition.
This study does not establish causation—it shows correlation between brain responsiveness and fatigue but cannot prove whether reduced responsiveness causes fatigue or results from it. The small sample size (6 patients) and male-only participants limit generalizability. Additionally, the study measures only one type of brain response (auditory) and cannot fully explain the underlying mechanisms causing these changes.
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
Tanaka, Masaaki, Sadato, Norihiro, Okada, Tomohisa, Mizuno, Kei, Sasabe, Tetsuya, Tanabe, Hiroki C, et al. (2006). Reduced responsiveness is an essential feature of chronic fatigue syndrome: a fMRI study.. BMC neurology. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2377-6-9
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-tanaka-2006-reduced-responsiveness,
author = {Tanaka, Masaaki and Sadato, Norihiro and Okada, Tomohisa and Mizuno, Kei and Sasabe, Tetsuya and Tanabe, Hiroki C and Saito, Daisuke N and Onoe, Hirotaka and Kuratsune, Hirohiko and Watanabe, Yasuyoshi},
title = {Reduced responsiveness is an essential feature of chronic fatigue syndrome: a fMRI study.},
journal = {BMC neurology},
year = {2006},
doi = {10.1186/1471-2377-6-9},
note = {PubMed: 16504053},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tanaka-2006-reduced-responsiveness},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tanaka-2006-reduced-responsiveness
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