Cortical plasticity is correlated with cognitive improvement in Alzheimer’s disease patients after rTMS treatment

Brain Stimulation

Ti-Fei Yuan¹  Hong Zheng²  Xingxing Li²  Chang Yu²  Guomin Lian²  Dongsheng Zhou³  Gangqiao Qi⁴  Shaochang Wu⁵ 

[1] Corresponding author.;Ningbo Kangning Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China;Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China;Taizhou Second People’s Hospital, Taizhou, Zhejiang, China;The Second People’s Hospital of Lishui, Lishui, Zhejiang, China;

关键词: rTMS;    Transcranial magnetic stimulation;    Alzheimer’s disease;    Cognition;    Cortical plasticity;    Long-term potentiation;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Objective: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been widely used in non-invasive treatments for different neurological disorders. Few biomarkers are available for treatment response prediction. This study aims to analyze the correlation between changes in long-term potentiation (LTP)-like cortical plasticity and cognitive function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that underwent rTMS treatment. Methods: A total of 75 AD patients were randomized into either 20 Hz rTMS treatment at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) group (n = 37) or a sham treatment group (n = 38) for 30 sessions over six weeks (five days per week) with a three-month follow-up. Neuropsychological assessments were conducted using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment-Cognitive Component (ADAS-Cog). The cortical plasticity reflected by the motor-evoked potential (MEP) before and after high-frequency repetitive TMS to the primary motor cortex (M1) was also examined prior to and after the treatment period. Results: The results showed that the cognitive ability of patients who underwent the MMSE and ADAS-Cog assessments showed small but significant improvement after six weeks of rTMS treatment compared with the sham group. The cortical plasticity improvement correlated to the observed cognition change. Conclusions: Cortical LTP-like plasticity could predict the treatment responses of cognitive improvements in AD patients receiving rTMS intervention. This warrants future clinical trials using cortical LTP as a predictive marker.

【 授权许可】

Unknown