PATHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION AND DISSOCIATION OF FUNCTIONAL-SYSTEMS IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS AND HUNTINGTONS-DISEASE

This study examined pathological associations and dissociations of fun ctional cognitive systems in patients with multiple sclerosis and Hunt ington's disease. Using the subtests of the WAIS-R, two motor tests, a nd the word fluency test, the intertest correlations showed distinct p atterns. In comparison to normals, the two clinical groups exhibited a greater degree of association among the tests. Subsequently, word flu ency performance was predicted from these tests. For the normals, the overall predictive power was quite low (7%). For the MS group, the pre dictive power rose to 28%. For the HD group, the predictive power was 50%. These results suggest that pathological association of functional systems may be a marker of brain dysfunction and that the affected sy stems may be delineated by these methods.