Department of Medical Psychology, School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei 230032, China; Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorder and Mental Health, Hefei 230000, China.
Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, The School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032, China.
Brain Res. 2021 Aug 15;1765:147510. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147510. Epub 2021 Apr 29.
Associative memory (AM) is an essential function of everyday life, but is often disrupted in many neurological diseases. Recent studies have found that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can effectively enhance AM and have shown its potential in clinical applications. In this study, we aimed to reproduce the 5-day rTMS effect on AM in a Chinese version of a face-cued word recall task. In an open-label experiment, AM scores were significantly improved after active 20-Hz rTMS on individualized inferior parietal lobule (IPL) targets. To exclude the placebo effect, we performed a second experiment and added rTMS of the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) as an active control. In this within-subject crossover experiment, participants received active rTMS on IPL and preSMA targets, separated by at least 2 weeks. A Stroop task was included as a control test, which was more likely to be modulated by preSMA stimulations. We found that stimulations on IPL targets significantly improved AM, but this change did not significantly higher than that induced by preSMA stimulations. No significant change in Stroop measures were found in either IPL or preSMA condition. In summary, this study did not support that the 5 days of rTMS on individualized IPL targets could improve AM more than placebo rTMS. Further work is required to improve the rTMS paradigms to enhance the aftereffects in memory.
联想记忆（AM）是日常生活的基本功能，但在许多神经疾病中经常受到干扰。最近的研究发现，重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）可以有效地增强 AM，并在临床应用中显示出其潜力。在这项研究中，我们旨在复制中文版面孔提示词回忆任务中 5 天 rTMS 对 AM 的影响。在一项开放性实验中，在个体化顶下小叶（IPL）靶点上进行 20-Hz rTMS 后，AM 评分显著提高。为了排除安慰剂效应，我们进行了第二项实验，并增加了作为主动对照的运动前区（preSMA）rTMS。在这项 within-subject 交叉实验中，参与者至少间隔 2 周分别在 IPL 和 preSMA 靶点上接受主动 rTMS。一项 Stroop 任务被包括在内作为对照测试，它更可能被 preSMA 刺激所调节。我们发现，在 IPL 靶点上的刺激显著改善了 AM，但这种变化并不显著高于 preSMA 刺激引起的变化。在 IPL 或 preSMA 条件下，Stroop 测量均未发现明显变化。总之，这项研究不支持个体化 IPL 靶点上 5 天的 rTMS 比安慰剂 rTMS 更能改善 AM。需要进一步改进 rTMS 范式以增强记忆的后效。
