Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation Blog

New Connection between Restless Legs Syndrome and Changes in Brain Structure

In a new study published in an online issue of Neurology, researchers at Pennsylvania State University revealed a connection between patients with restless legs syndrome and changes in brain structure, specifically parts of the brain that process sensory information.

"These structural changes make it even more convincing that restless legs syndrome symptoms are stemming from unique changes in the brain, and provide a new area of focus to understand the syndrome and possibly develop new therapies," said study author Byeong-Yeul Lee, PhD, who worked on the research team while at Pennsylvania State University before moving onto The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. James R. Connor, RLS Foundation Scientific and Medical Advisory Board member, is also an author on this work.

During the study, MRI brain scans were performed on 28 people with severe RLS (who had the disorder for an average of 13 years) and a control group of 51 people without RLS. These scans showed that patients with RLS had an average of 7.5 percent less tissue thickness in the somatosensory cortex, the area of the brain that processes thing like touch, pain, movement, position and temperature.

Interestingly, the RLS patient group also had a decrease in the brain where nerve fibers connect the two hemispheres of the brain. While this study does not prove causation, it does provide a new piece to the puzzle about where to focus RLS research and treatments.

“I think the work is important at two levels,” Dr. Connor said. “The data continue to support that there are differences in the RLS brain --- these types of studies continue to hammer home the idea to the general public and health professional communities and funding agencies that RLS is a biological disorder and not anxiety or something without a biological basis. Additionally, this study is important because it ties imaging to the area of the brain that involves processing sensory information. We don’t know if the RLS symptoms start at this area of the brain or elsewhere in the brain, but for the first time there is a clear change in the brain that interprets sensory input.”

The original Neurology article is available for purchase online.