Online Table a Cognitive performances assessed with the Brief Repeatable Battery for Neuropsychological Tests (BRB-N)

BRB-N / MS / HC / Mean / sd / T / df / p /
Long Term Storage / HC / 60.31 / 8.159 / -.294 / 26 / .771 /
MS / 61.20 / 7.867 /
Consistent Long Term Retrieval / HC / 54.15 / 13.158 / -.537 / 26 / .596 /
MS / 56.80 / 12.852 /
Spatial Recall Test / HC / 24.46 / 4.719 / .443 / 26 / .662 /
MS / 23.73 / 3.990 /
Symbol Digit Modalities Test / HC / 58.77 / 11.381 / .597 / 26 / .556 /
MS / 55.87 / 13.964 /
PASAT / HC / 50.38 / 7.795 / .083 / 26 / .934 /
MS / 50.13 / 8.105 /
Selective Reminding Test (dr) / HC / 11.31 / 1.437 / .211 / 26 / .835 /
MS / 11.20 / 1.265 /
Spatial Recall Test (dr) / HC / 8.77 / 1.833 / -.870 / 26 / .392 /
MS / 9.27 / 1.163 /
Word List Generation / HC / 26.15 / 5.998 / .752 / 26 / .459 /
MS / 24.73 / 3.918

BRB-N = Brief repeatable battery of neuropsychological tests. PASAT = Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test. dr = delayed recall.

Online Table b Executive performance tested with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)

WCST / MS / HC / Mean / sd / T / df / p /
Total Number Correct / HC / 67.20 / 8.149 / -.994 / 23 / .331 /
MS / 70.60 / 8.526 /
Total Number of Errors / HC / 15.70 / 7.349 / -1.506 / 20.1 / .148 /
MS / 23.40 / 17.642 /
Perseverative Responses / HC / 10.00 / 5.754 / -.674 / 23 / .507 /
MS / 12.40 / 10.183 /
Perseverative Errors / HC / 9.10 / 4.458 / -1.018 / 21.1 / .320 /
MS / 12.00 / 9.584 /
Non-perseverative Errors / HC / 6.30 / 5.293 / -1.646 / 21.9 / .114 /
MS / 11.47 / 10.281

WCST = Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

Online Table c Group differences in the behavioral performance for the emotion recognition tests

BERT / MS / HC / Mean / sd / T / df / p /
BERT 1 (motor reaction task) sec / HC / 0.4631 / 0.893 / -1.220 / 28 / .233 /
MS / 0.5099 / 1.186 /
BERT2 (AFDN) % / HC / 81.04 / 09.35 / -.330 / 28 / .744 /
MS / 82.19 / 09.65 /
BERT2 (AFD) % / HC / 77.22 / 12.00 / .031 / 28 / .975 /
MS / 77.08 / 12.45 /
BERT2 (fear) % / HC / 75.83 / 17.34 / .823 / 28 / .418 /
MS / 70.00 / 21.29 /
BERT2 (anger) % / HC / 80.83 / 12.60 / -.458 / 28 / .651 /
MS / 83.33 / 16.98 /
BERT2 (disgust) % / HC / 75.00 / 17.36 / -.479 / 28 / .636 /
MS / 77.92 / 15.99 /
BERT2 (neutral) % / HC / 92.50 / 10.88 / -1.608 / 20.0 / .124 /
MS / 97.50 / 05.18 /
BERT3 (AFDN) % / HC / 85.07 / 04.40 / .303 / 19.1 / .765 /
MS / 84.20 / 10.15 /
BERT3 (AFD) % / HC / 82.56 / 06.44 / .188 / 28 / .852 /
MS / 81.96 / 10.61 /
BERT3 (fear) % / HC / 81.33 / 09.52 / .503 / 28 / .619 /
MS / 79.47 / 10.78 /
BERT3 (anger) % / HC / 79.14 / 12.30 / -1.035 / 28 / .309 /
MS / 84.27 / 14.69 /
BERT3 (disgust) % / HC / 87.20 / 08.17 / 1.391 / 28 / .175 /
MS / 82.13 / 11.50 /
BERT3 (neutral) % / HC / 92.54 / 05.43 / .535 / 28 / .597 /
MS / 90.93 / 10.31 /
BERT2 (AFDN) sec / HC / 2.541 / 0.859 / -.990 / 28 / .331 /
MS / 2.939 / 1.299 /
BERT2 (AFD) sec / HC / 2.891 / 1.037 / -.767 / 28 / .449 /
MS / 3.231 / 1.369 /
BERT2 (fear) sec / HC / 3.235 / 1.114 / -.942 / 28 / .354 /
MS / 3.638 / 1.229 /
BERT2 (anger) sec / HC / 2.711 / 0.971 / -.431 / 28 / .670 /
MS / 2.901 / 1.402 /
BERT2 (disgust) sec / HC / 2.726 / 1.194 / -.814 / 28 / .422 /
MS / 3.153 / 1.646 /
BERT2 (neutral)
sec / HC / 1.491 / 0.470 / -1.691 / 18.1 / .108 /
MS / 2.062 / 1.220 /
BERT3 (AFDN) sec / HC / 0.769 / 0.711 / .396 / 28 / .695 /
MS / 0.759 / 0.667 /
BERT3 (AFD) sec / HC / 0.786 / 0.719 / .229 / 28 / .820 /
MS / 0.780 / 0.644 /
BERT3 (fear) sec / HC / 0.802 / 0.744 / -.277 / 28 / .784 /
MS / 0.811 / 0.837 /
BERT3 (anger) sec / HC / 0.769 / 0.942 / .523 / 28 / .605 /
MS / 0.754 / 0.642 /
BERT3 (disgust) sec / HC / 0.785 / 0.817 / .343 / 28 / .734 /
MS / 0.775 / 0.736 /
BERT3 (neutral) sec / HC / 0.721 / 0.791 / .739 / 28 / .466 /
MS / 0.698 / 0.894

sec: reaction time in seconds

%: correct responses in percent (for BERT 1) or accuracy rate in percent (for BERT 2)

Online Table d ROI Correlation analyses of individual signal change in PCC / precuneus during the recognition of facial expressions with anger and disgust with normalised brain volume, grey and white matter, and lesion load for MS patients.

MRI Imaging / Signal Change during recognition of / Pearson Correlation (r) / Level of Significance (p) /
Whole Brain Volume / anger / -0,085 / 0,764 /
disgust / -0,049 / 0,861 /
Grey Matter / anger / 0,248 / 0,373 /
disgust / 0,242 / 0,385 /
White Matter / anger / -0,391 / 0,149 /
disgust / -0,332 / 0,226 /
Lesion Load / anger / 0,412 / 0,127 /
disgust / 0,192 / 0,492 /