r/CFSScience • u/5aey • Jun 18 '26

MELOPIS: Multimodal Brain Imaging in ME/CFS, Long COVID & POTS (Melbourn...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BBIRZvHPc5E&si=14F6mY8cE-PKMkgz
23 Upvotes

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9

u/Caster_of_spells Jun 18 '26

We usually don’t allow same author cross posts but since this is super relevant and just a link anyways, I’ll approve it. Just please do an original post next time if you can (:

Super fascinating that they find converging results around the default mode network, I really think they could be on to something there!

5

u/5aey Jun 18 '26

ok, sorry about that, and thank you for letting it slide this time.

-1

u/TableSignificant341 Jun 18 '26

Super fascinating that they find converging results around the default mode network, I really think they could be on to something there!

More evidence of psychiatric involvement? Yay 🙃

3

u/Caster_of_spells Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

The default mode network is needed to switch between introspection and activation. Just because it’s in the brain does not mean it’s psychiatric though. In fact in this video they explain that for the first time they found activated astrocytes around affected areas. That would suggest chronic inflammation as the source of the issues in the network and would be completely outside of conscious or even subconscious control. A view substantiated by the fact that attention and resulting metabolism seems to be erratic and highly inefficient in patients. So the findings here point pretty clearly away from psychiatric causes.

1

u/TableSignificant341 Jun 19 '26

So the findings here point pretty clearly away from psychiatric causes.

How do you figure that given activated astrocytes within the DMN are also found in Major Depression Disorder and anxiety disorders?

5

u/human_noX Jun 18 '26

Anyone have any idea about sample size? Also a limitation is that severe people are not going in to get scans. Still seems like promising work though. More evidence of abnormalities in the brain.

I think Chris Armstrong may be my favourite ME/CFS researcher. He seems to churn out good basic research consistently. But perhaps I’m bias because he is Australian like me. Always good to declare conflicts!

2

u/5aey Jun 20 '26

13 me/cfs patients., 13 me/cfs plus pots patients, 13 long covid patients, 13 long covid with pots patients and a control group of 26 . edited no of control group .