Wortinger, Laura Anne, Endestad, Tor, Melinder, Annika Maria D et al. · Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology · 2017 · DOI
This study looked at how the brains of teenagers with ME/CFS process emotions and handle conflicting information. Researchers used brain imaging to watch what happened when young people with ME/CFS and healthy teenagers tried to identify emotions in faces while being distracted by conflicting words. Teenagers with ME/CFS showed weaker brain responses in areas that handle emotions and decision-making, and their brain activity was linked to how severe their fatigue was.
This study provides neurobiological evidence that ME/CFS involves measurable abnormalities in brain regions responsible for emotional processing and cognitive control, not just subjective symptoms. Understanding these brain-level differences may help validate ME/CFS as a biological condition and guide development of targeted interventions for adolescent patients.
This pilot study does not prove that salience network dysfunction causes ME/CFS fatigue—it only shows an association. The small sample size limits generalizability, and the study cannot distinguish whether brain abnormalities are primary features of the disease or secondary effects of chronic illness. Cross-sectional design prevents determining whether these neural changes persist or change over time.
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
Wortinger, Laura Anne, Endestad, Tor, Melinder, Annika Maria D, Øie, Merete Glenne, Sulheim, Dag, Fagermoen, Even, et al. (2017). Emotional conflict processing in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study using functional magnetic resonance imaging.. Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2016.1230180
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-wortinger-2017-emotional-conflict,
author = {Wortinger, Laura Anne and Endestad, Tor and Melinder, Annika Maria D and Øie, Merete Glenne and Sulheim, Dag and Fagermoen, Even and Wyller, Vegard Bruun},
title = {Emotional conflict processing in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study using functional magnetic resonance imaging.},
journal = {Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1080/13803395.2016.1230180},
note = {PubMed: 27647312},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wortinger-2017-emotional-conflict},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wortinger-2017-emotional-conflict
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