High-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Could Improve Impaired Working Memory Induced by Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

Objective. To investigate whether and how the working memory impairment induced by sleep deprivation (SD) could be recovered by using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), as well as to clarify the corresponding brain activity changes. Methods. Seventeen healthy adults received one session of 5.0 Hz rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) following 24 hours of SD. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and working memory test were performed during a rested waking period, after SD and rTMS. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) was used to detect the spontaneous neural activity changes after both SD and rTMS. The relationship between ALFF and the performance of working memory was also assessed by using correlation analysis. Results. After SD, the participants exhibited lower response accuracies and longer reaction times on the working memory tests of letters and numbers. The decreased response accuracy of numbers was significantly improved after rTMS similarly to the state of the rested waking period after a normal night of sleep. ALFF values decreased from the rested waking period state to the state of SD in the brain regions involving the frontal gyrus, precuneus, angular gyrus, and parietal lobe which showed significantly increased ALFF after rTMS. Furthermore, significantly positive correlations were observed between changes of response accuracy and the changes of ALFF value of the inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Conclusion. These results indicate that high-frequency rTMS applied over left DLPFC may contribute to the recovery of the impaired working memory after SD by modulating the neural activity of related brain regions.

Influence of theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on emotion processing in healthy volunteers

“…The DLPFC is involved in processing of emotions, specifically top-down emotional control (Cacioppo et al, 1993;Dolcos et al, 2004;Zwanzger et al, 2014), and is more broadly linked to working memory and cognitive control, processes that can become impaired during depression (Fales et al, 2008;Grimm et al, 2008;Koenigs & Grafman, 2009;Rock et al, 2014). Studies involving the 10 Hz rTMS over the DLPFC have provided interesting insight, in both depressed and healthy individuals, regarding its positive influence on working memory and emotion processing (Weigand et al, 2013;Guo et al, 2019). The beneficial effects of rTMS over the DLPFC are believed to stem from the connections of the PFC with the limbic system, particularly the hippocampus and amygdala (Groenewegen & Uylings, 2000).…”

“…Previous brain stimulation research involving transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), as well as rTMS protocols, has indicated that transcranial brain stimulation over the DLPFC improves emotion processing in both healthy and patient populations, by inhibiting negative bias and increasing excitability for positive stimuli (Brunoni et al, 2014;Guo et al, 2019;Ironside, O'Shea, Cowen, & Harmer, 2016;Nitsche et al, 2012). Authors argue that stimulation methods such as rTMS, if applied over the left PFC, can modulate affective processing (Choi, Scott, & Lim, 2016;Schutter & van Honk, 2005).…”

Closed-Loop Phase-Dependent Vibration Stimulation Improves Motor Imagery-Based Brain-Computer Interface Performance

“…Previous research has shown that incoming tactile stimuli at an alpha frequency can enhance task-related alpha desynchronization ( Long et al, 2016 ). Zhang et al (2020) experimented with enhancing MI by electrically stimulating the ulnar nerve of the contralateral wrist at the alpha frequency (10 Hz), and improved the classification accuracy of left- and right-hand MI by about 15%. But in the actual application of motor imagery, the imagination task is often initiated by people subjectively rather than pre-set.…”

Inconsistent effects of sleep deprivation on memory function

“…It has been shown that acute SD induces weakly encoded memories in human subjects (Baena et al, 2020[ 11 ]). 24 hours SD also impairs working memory in healthy adults (Guo et al, 2019[ 33 ]). TSD for 24 hours also impairs working memory in healthy young men (Sauvet et al, 2020[ 95 ]) (Table 1 (Tab.…”

“…TSD for 24 hours also impairs working memory in healthy young men (Sauvet et al, 2020[ 95 ]) (Table 1 (Tab. 1) ; References in Table 1: Almaspour et al, 2020[ 5 ]; Alzoubi et al, 2017[ 9 ], 2018[ 8 ]; Eydipour et al, 2020[ 23 ]; Guo et al, 2019[ 33 ]; Hennecke et al, 2020[ 41 ]; Javad-Moosavi et al, 2017[ 46 ], 2020[ 45 ]; Kordestani-Moghadam et al, 2020[ 51 ]; Montes-Rodriguez et al, 2019[ 71 ]; Nasehi et al, 2019[ 77 ]; Ocalan et al, 2019[ 79 ]; Rezaie et al, 2020[ 91 ][ 92 ]; Sauvet et al, 2020[ 95 ]; Tang et al, 2020[ 105 ]; Wang et al, 2009[ 117 ]).…”