Saturday 07/March/2026 – 01:21 AM
revealed Recent study Conducted by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, sickle cell disease reshapes how brain networks work to compensate for a lack of oxygen supply.
Scientific study: Sickle cell disease restructures brain functions and networks
According to what was published in Medical
The researchers used MRI and advanced analytical tools drawn from economics to study effective connectivity with the aim of explaining how brain networks influence each other in response to changes associated with disease.
The results showed that the executive control network, which is responsible for higher cognitive functions such as decision-making, attracts support from attention networks, and patients with mild complications of sickle cell anemia rely on the dorsal attention network, while patients with more severe cases rely on the ventral attention network, which is responsible for responding to unexpected events.
Nahoum Mousazghi, a doctoral researcher in biomedical engineering and first author of the study, noted that these results prove that the brain reorganizes its networks to maintain its functions and compensate for lack of oxygen.
For her part, Assistant Professor Susina Wood confirmed that adult patients may achieve accuracy in performing tasks comparable to healthy people, but the speed of their behavioral and neural responses is slower as a result of these hidden neural compensations.
The study highlights the need to integrate neurological care into treatment programs for adults with sickle cell anemia, as traditional care often focuses on children and blood diseases. In the future, the research team intends to combine MRI with simultaneous EEG to identify neural circuits that can be targeted with non-surgical interventions to improve patients’ cognitive functions.
