Vets From First Gulf War Show Brain Differences

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But recent advances in brain imaging are helping that effort.

In its study, which is ongoing, White's team took detailed MRI images of the brains of 36 veterans of the first Iraq conflict. Half of the veterans have complained of five or more symptoms -- out of a list of 20 -- attributed to Gulf War syndrome, while the other half have listed less than five symptoms.

The brain scans revealed key differences between the two groups.

First, the cortex -- the covering of the brain, highly involved in learning -- was about 5 percent smaller in those veterans with a higher number of symptoms compared with those with a lower number of symptoms. And a second area of the brain, called the rostral anterior cingulated gyrus -- important to emotion, motivation and memory -- was 6 percent smaller on average in the more symptomatic vets, according to the study.

These finds are preliminary and do not confirm that wartime exposures changed the veterans' brains, only that differences exist, White said.

However, the brain differences may be relevant to reported symptoms "because [veterans] complain of fatigue, of changes in their cognitive efficiency, and memory problems," she noted. "We actually have objective evidence that memory performances were worse among the high-symptom complainers and that correlates with the findings in the cingulated gyrus," White added.

Those symptoms also correlate with exposures to a variety of toxins present in the first Iraq conflict, White said. "Things like pesticides, sarin -- chemical warfare agents of the kind that they used in the Gulf -- those kinds of substances do cause these kinds of effects on brain function," she said. However, she added that "much less is known about more subtle effects on brain structure of these chemicals, because they have not been studied in this way."

Another expert in Gulf War syndrome agreed that it's impossible at this point to conclude that wartime exposures led to changes in veterans' brains.

For example, "we know that many psychiatric disorders, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, cause cognitive problems. And we know that these two can be associated with changes in brain function and metabolism," said Dr. Simon Wessely, a professor of psychiatry at the King's Center for Military Health Research at King's College London.