Cortical plasticity is correlated with cognitive improvement in Alzheimer’s disease patients after rTMS treatment
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 (L...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Brain Stimulation |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1935861X21000176 |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| ISSN: | 1935-861X |