Open RECRUITING: Investigating the impact of ME/CFS and Long COVID on visual perception and sustained attention using Pupil Frequency Tagging and EEG

Investigating the impact of ME/CFS and Long COVID on visual perception and sustained attention using Pupil Frequency Tagging and EEG (Leicester, UK)

Individuals with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) often report visual overload, difficulties filtering relevant from irrelevant visual information, and (mental and physical) fatigue during visual search. Despite the prevalence of these symptoms, little is known about the way ME/CFS impacts sufferers’ ability to perceive and focus on objects in the scene. This study is designed to provide a detailed description of the impact of ME/CFS on perceptual and cognitive processes that are essential for everyday visual function. The study will use non-invasive physiological measures including pupil frequency tagging and electrophysiology (EEG) to investigate the impact of ME/CFS on visual perception and attentional control.

The aims of this study are:

1. Compare perceptual responses and their relationship to self-report measures of visual fatigue in ME/CFS and healthy controls.
   
   
2. Measure sustained and selective attention using a measure of pupil size called “pupil frequency tagging”.
   
   
3. Measure sustained and selective attention using electrophysiological recordings of brain activity (EEG).
   
   
4. Investigate whether fatigue induced decrease in attentional control is comparable or distinct in individuals with ME/CFS and Long COVID.

The results will provide important insights into the way fatigue caused by ME/CFS affects different components of perception and attention and enable the evaluation of the sensitivity and reliability of pupil frequency tagging and EEG measures of commonly reported cognitive symptoms.

The study is supported by a PhD bursary funded by ME Research UK and includes a team of researchers at the School of Psychology and Vision Sciences at the University of Leicester and has been approved by the University of Leicester Research Ethics Committee.

We are recruiting individuals with ME/CFS or Long COVID, over the age of 18, with normal or corrected-to-normal vision and no known neurological disorders (e.g., epilepsy). If interested, please complete the short form on our website at the following link (https://dougiebarrett.github.io/Lab/pages/ME_CFS.html) or email Anosha directly (at: aa1491@leicester.ac.uk). Upon registering your interest, we will send further information on the study, including the measures and techniques, duration of sessions and monetary compensation as well as how your data will be protected.

Any feedback, relative articles or potential ideas for future study are also welcome.

Thank you!

*UPDATE* Thank you to everyone that has registered interest thus far- I am not ignoring you! As I am making amendments to the ethics application, and designing an online form for those of severer symptoms, I have to wait before sending out further information on the study (until I receive approval). As soon as I get this, I will be emailing details to everyone. This may take another week or two. Sorry for the delay but I'd really like to reach more of the ME/CFS and Long COVID population rather than only those of milder symptoms


Researcher contact details:

PhD student

Anosha Altaf

Department of Psychology and Vision Sciences

George Davies Centre

University of Leicester, LE1 7RH

aa1491@leicester.ac.uk



Supervisor

Dr Douglas Barrett

Telephone: +44 116 229 7178

Department of Psychology and Vision Sciences

George Davies Centre

University of Leicester, LE1 7RH

djkb1@leicester.ac.uk

 

Dear Anosha thanks a lot for doing this work and engaging with patients on this website.

In the unlikely case you hadn't seen it yet some of the following work might be somewhat related to your own work:

• Exploring Cognitive Dysfunction in LC Patients: Eye Movement Abnormalities and Frontal-Subcortical Circuits Implications, 2024, Benito-León+
• Virtual reality for assessing stereopsis performance and eye characteristics in Post-COVID, 2023, Mehringer, Hohberger et al (Hohberger is an Ophthalmologist how has recently done a lot of work on LC and ME/CFS, with several currently ongoing studies)

Probably less related to your work there was a study in Germany titled "All Eyes on PCS - Analysis of the Retinal Microvasculature in Patients With Post-COVID-19 Syndrome" which published Persistent endothelial dysfunction in post-COVID-19 syndrome and its associations with symptom severity and chronic inflammation, 2023, Kuchler et al.

Similarly other studies have user OCT-A and RVA to look at vessels in LC and ME/CFS (Carmen Scheibenbogen at the Charite in Berlin also uses these as part of her diagnostic platform studies and also uses DVA, which might be of relevance to your own work). It seems your technique and what you are looking for would be quite different but could something like endothelial dysfunction or retinal microcirculation, if it were occuring, influence the results of your “pupil frequency tagging” measurements?

 

I've just shared this on Twitter, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon and Facebook

Best of luck

 

Thanks for the recommendations! You're quite right in saying these imaging techniques are out of the scope of my PhD (unfortunately) however anything that could impact visual perception for those with ME/CFS or Long COVID, I am definitely interested in reading and perhaps including within my thesis for future studies. As this PhD focuses on individuals with ME/CFS I must admit I haven't read quite as much on Long COVID as I should have so thank you. Being able to distinguish cognitive dysfunction occurring between these two groups will hopefully have the potential to aid in diagnosis through less complicated, cheaper, behavioural measures- if we are able to find them (hence my first two studies are for validation).

 

Thank you for advertising my study! I must admit recruitment has been difficult going through charities and support groups so far, so any publicity is greatly appreciated. I shall go and retweet

 

*POTENTIAL AMENDMENT*
Having read information on this site and from emails I have received from those interested in participating in my study, I have realised that my sample will not be representative of ME/CFS and will rather reflect those with mild, maybe moderate, symptoms. I was wondering if I could make an amendment to my ethics application and those with severer symptoms could complete an online questionnaire, a form of PPI, with questions relative to experienced symptoms that could be completed from the comforts of ones own home with no deadline to be completed, only submitted when ready. This would not be used "data" but rather to inform my final aim: designing an online behavioural task/measure of visual perception and attentional control that need not any laboratory visits but can be completed at home on a laptop for example. This will most likely be in 2 years time however if this is something that people would find useful to better inform me on how I can develop this online task to suit those of severer symptoms, then I shall get to designing a form and amending my ethics application. If there are any questions people would like to be on the form to describe visual/attentional symptoms that are not generally discussed, please do let me know! I am also interested in how covariate disorders interact here (such as depression or anxiety) and could include questions on this if not too invasive and participants are willing to share.

Many thanks to everyone's comments!

I shall wait until after bank holiday Monday to respond to those who have registered interest on my site so that I may create a mailing list and forward information regarding the study. Please email with any questions or details that you would like to share- all insight is greatly appreciated.

 

I don't know if this relevant to your study and aim but a forum member (@chillier) recently did some interesting home experiments using eye tracking:
Measuring Cognitive Exertion | Science for ME (s4me.info)