The aim to recruit 40 CIS patients with at least two subclinical lesions on brain MRI. Patients are tested only one month at least after steroids intake and after 6 weeks at least after any relapse. The control group include 40 right -handed participants; each of them are matched for age, gender, and education level with a CIS patient.
The parameters to be evaluated are:
The prevalence of alexithymia is assessed by The Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS-20, a self-reported scale. The TAS-20 total score corresponds to global level of alexithymia, as the sum of these three subdomains: 1.Difficulties in Identifying Feelings (DIF); 2. Difficulties in Describing Feelings (DDF); 3. Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT).
Standard neurological examination is performed by a neurologist using the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS ).
The standardized neuropsychological battery, named BCcogSEP, is administrated. The BCcogSEP is made of eight tests commonly impaired in MS. Fourteen scores were obtained and a score was considered impaired when it was inferior to 5th percentile range compared to the normal range. The number of impaired scores are considered and a cognitive impairment is considered when 4 scores are superior or equal to percentile 5th.
For psychobehavioral assessments, the investigators estimated (a) depression (according to the Beck Depression Inventory; BDI (30)) and anxiety (according to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (31)); (b) apathy (according to the Lille Apathy Rating Scale (32)); (c) empathy (according to Interpersonal Reactivity Index; IRI).
