Three structures in the brain called the
basal ganglia,
thalamus and
neocortex are have a key role in information-processing. The
basal ganglia and
thalamus are groups of neurons that are found deep with in the brain and are typically referred to as the deep gray matter. The
neocortex refers to the layer of cells on the surface of the brain.
This study shows that damage and shrinking in size of the
basal ganglia and
thalamus on MRI in MS'ers is associated with slow information processing.
Another lesson from this study is that MS is not only a white matter (
myelin) disease but also affects the gray matter (
neurons).