Evaluation of cognitive function in individuals with myasthenia gravis using simple and complex reaction time method

Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease caused by antibodies against mainly postsynaptic proteins that play an important role in the function of the neuromuscular junction. Function disruption of the junction leads to weakness of sceletal and ocular muscles. Myasthenia Gravis can significantly affect the quality of life of patients with motor as well as nonmotor symptoms and there is a need to investigate the processes related to cognitive impairment. The literature on cognitive involvement in MG patients mostly consists of neuropsychological test batteries and questionnaire studies and the results are contradictory. For this purpose, our study aimed to measure simple and complex reaction time (CRT and BRT) in MG patients and to compare the increase in CRT compared to BRT with healthy subjects. For this purpose, the participants were asked to press the button at the moment of light stimulus and the muscle activation that occurred during this time was recorded with superficial EMG. The number of correct responses, incorrect responses and the latency of contractions without button pressing were compared between the control and MG groups, and no statistically significant difference was found.