What determines the kind of symptoms an MS patient experiences and whether they are fleeting or permanent?
The kinds of symptoms a patient experiences depend on where the lesions occur. Most of our brain is involved with mental processing and emotions, while only a relatively small part of our brain regulates physical processes, such as movement of limbs and eyes, feelings, sensations, and control of bowels and bladder. Because different parts of the brain do vastly different things, we can liken the presentation of MS symptoms to an unpredictable game of darts: The character and severity of symptoms will vary according to the area of the brain that has been struck. If the lesion is “acute” and inflammation predominates, the patient may experience a loss of function, even though the neurons and axons are not completely destroyed. Such a loss of function is usually reversible. The patient can fully recover after the inflammation subsides and the myelin is repaired. This is called remyelination. Even if neurons and axons are destroyed, many patients will recover their function, at least parti
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