Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, 45th, Changchun Street, Beijing 100053, China.
Affiliated Rehabilitation Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang University, 133th, south road of square Street, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2024 Mar 1;34(3). doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhae106.
Intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) is emerging as a noninvasive therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent advances highlighted a new accelerated iTBS (aiTBS) protocol, consisting of multiple sessions per day and higher overall pulse doses, in brain modulation. To examine the possibility of applying the aiTBS in treating AD patients, we enrolled 45 patients in AD at early clinical stages, and they were randomly assigned to either receive real or sham aiTBS. Neuropsychological scores were evaluated before and after treatment. Moreover, we detected cortical excitability and oscillatory activity changes in AD, by the single-pulse TMS in combination with EEG (TMS-EEG). Real stimulation showed markedly better performances in the group average of Auditory Verbal Learning Test scores compared to baseline. TMS-EEG revealed that aiTBS has reinforced this memory-related cortical mechanism by increasing cortical excitability and beta oscillatory activity underlying TMS target. We also found an enhancement of local natural frequency after aiTBS treatment. The novel findings implicated that high-dose aiTBS targeting left DLPFC is rapid-acting, safe, and tolerable in AD patients. Furthermore, TMS-related increase of specific neural oscillation elucidates the mechanisms of the AD cognitive impairment ameliorated by aiTBS.
经颅磁刺激（TMS）联合脑电图（TMS-EEG）技术在阿尔茨海默病中的研究进展
