Barraclough M, McKie S, Parker B, et al. - This study was intended to investigate the impacts of disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) on cognitive function whilst taking into consideration other potential mediators. Researchers recruited two groups of SLE patients; stable/low disease activity (SLE-S, n = 36) and active disease (SLE-F, n = 26). Disease activity affects functional brain processes but not cognitive behavioral measures. The fMRI results showed that the SLE-F group had a less attenuated response in the medial prefrontal cortex (a default mode network—DMN region) vs the SLE-S group during the working memory task. Exploratory correlations within the SLE-F group showed correlations between neuronal responses and depression, cognitive fatigue, disease activity measures and IL-6. During a working memory task, flaring SLE patients were less able to suppress DMN regions. The results showed that in flaring patients, a number of factors are associated with brain function, which has potential implications for holistic treatments.