Cognition in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Purpose of review – Cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis (MS) has gained increasing attention over recent decades, reflecting its substantial effects on day-to-day functioning and the limited availability of targeted therapies. This review addresses contemporary advances in the role of cognition to detect disease progression, examines biological and MRI correlates of cognitive dysfunction, and summarizes the evidence for treatment effects.Recent findings – Cognitive changes can capture both acute relapse–related drops (including isolated cognitive relapses) and gradual decline consistent with progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA). Among fluid markers, serum neurofilament light chains relates to cognition mostly in relapsing disease, whereas glial fibrillary acidic protein seems to track global progression more than cognitive changes. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) candidate markers (CHI3L1, parvalbumin) and synaptic proteins (SNAP-25, neurogranin, β-synuclein) may help identifying patients at higher risk of cognitive decline. MRI demonstrates that grey-matter pathology best explains long-term cognitive trajectories while newer readouts (radiomics, quantitative susceptibility mapping of deep-grey nuclei, structural–functional disconnection and multiplex network indices, and choroid-plexus/glymphatic measures) add mechanistic and prognostic specificity beyond lesion burden and bulk atrophy. Data-driven cognitive phenotyping yields reproducible, biologically anchored profiles that outperform dichotomous impaired/preserved labels. Therapeutically, higher-efficacy disease-modifying therapies show the clearest association with preserved processing speed; cognitive rehabilitation, augmented in some settings by transcranial direct-current stimulation, produces additional gains. Summary – Routine assessment and monitoring of cognitive functions should be embedded in MS care to detect relapse-related changes and progressive decline. Identifying fluid and MRI biomarkers of cognitive dysfunction may help individuate novel targets and specific treatments.