Thapaliya, Kiran, Staines, Donald, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya et al. · Journal of neuroscience research · 2022 · DOI
Researchers used brain imaging to examine a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is important for memory and thinking. They found that people with ME/CFS who met stricter diagnostic criteria had some structural differences in specific regions of their hippocampus compared to healthy people, and these differences were connected to how severe their fatigue and pain were. This finding supports the idea that ME/CFS involves real physical changes in the brain that may explain memory and cognitive problems patients experience.
This study provides structural neuroimaging evidence that ME/CFS—particularly in strictly-defined cases—involves measurable brain changes in regions critical for memory and cognition. Understanding these physical changes may help validate ME/CFS as a neurobiological condition and eventually guide development of targeted treatments for cognitive and memory dysfunction.
This study cannot establish whether hippocampal volumetric changes cause ME/CFS symptoms or result from them—the association is correlational only. The cross-sectional design means we cannot determine if these brain changes develop over time or precede symptom onset. Results from only 18 ICC-criteria patients limit generalizability to all ME/CFS populations.
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, Staines, Donald, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya, Su, Jiasheng, & Barnden, Leighton (2022). Volumetric differences in hippocampal subfields and associations with clinical measures in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.. Journal of neuroscience research. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.25048
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-thapaliya-2022-volumetric-differences,
author = {Thapaliya, Kiran and Staines, Donald and Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya and Su, Jiasheng and Barnden, Leighton},
title = {Volumetric differences in hippocampal subfields and associations with clinical measures in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Journal of neuroscience research},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1002/jnr.25048},
note = {PubMed: 35355311},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/thapaliya-2022-volumetric-differences},
}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-volumetric-differences
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