Health and Disability

"If this finding holds, it will be exciting because yes, we’ve found something that has never been found before. But there’s this additional layer of looking at a disease that was completely ostracized. So there’s also this component of validation."

The researchers found three types of brain abnormalities in the people who were diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Firstly, the white matter areas were significantly smaller in those with the syndrome than in the healthy subjects. White matter helps carry nerve impulses between neurons.

Secondly, the arcuate fasciculus, a tract of the brain that connects the temporal and frontal lobes, had abnormalities. Normally, the arcuate fasciculus is in charge of language and comprehension in the left hemisphere of the brain, but after scanning, the scientists found that the people with chronic fatigue syndrome had the abnormalities of the arcuate fasciculus in the right hemisphere. Doctors don’t know yet what the fasciculus does on the right side of the brain and are hoping that some more studies of chronic fatigue patients will reveal more about that.

Thridly, they found that the grey matter around the abnormal arcuate fasciculus is thicker in the patients with the syndrome than in the healthy ones.