Thapaliya, Kiran, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya, Staines, Donald et al. · Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022 · DOI
Researchers used brain imaging to compare the brains of people with ME/CFS to healthy people. They found that people with ME/CFS had some areas of the brain that were thinner and other areas that were larger, particularly in regions involved in thinking and emotion. These brain differences were also connected to how severe symptoms like fatigue, sleep problems, and cognitive difficulties were in each person.
This study provides neurobiological evidence that ME/CFS involves measurable structural brain changes, supporting the recognition of ME/CFS as a neurological condition rather than purely psychological. Understanding these brain differences may help validate patient experiences and guide future research into disease mechanisms and potential biomarkers.
This study does not prove that the observed brain changes cause ME/CFS symptoms or that they are unique to ME/CFS; similar changes could occur in other conditions. The cross-sectional design cannot establish whether these brain alterations precede symptom onset, develop because of the illness, or result from its consequences. The small sample size limits the generalizability of findings to all ME/CFS patients.
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
Thapaliya, Kiran, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya, Staines, Donald, Su, Jiasheng, & Barnden, Leighton (2022). Alteration of Cortical Volume and Thickness in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Frontiers in neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.848730
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-thapaliya-2022-alteration-cortical,
author = {Thapaliya, Kiran and Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya and Staines, Donald and Su, Jiasheng and Barnden, Leighton},
title = {Alteration of Cortical Volume and Thickness in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Frontiers in neuroscience},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.3389/fnins.2022.848730},
note = {PubMed: 35527811},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/thapaliya-2022-alteration-cortical},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/thapaliya-2022-alteration-cortical
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