Predicting Long-Term After-Effects of Theta-Burst Stimulation on Supplementary Motor Network Through One-Session Response

Abstract

To understand the neural mechanism of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), the after-effects following one session or multiple days of stimulation have been widely investigated. However, the relation between the short-term effect (STE) and long-term effect (LTE) of rTMS is largely unknown. This study aims to explore whether the after-effects of 5-day rTMS on supplementary motor area (SMA) network could be predicted by one-session response. A primary cohort of 38 healthy participants underwent five daily sessions of real or sham continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) on the left SMA. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired at the first (before and after the first stimulation) and sixth experimental day. The SMA connectivity changes after the first cTBS and after 5 days of stimulation were defined as STE and LTE, respectively. Compared to the baseline, significant STE and LTE were found in the bilateral paracentral gyrus (ParaCG) after real stimulation, suggesting shared neural correlates of short-and long-term stimulations. Region-ofinterest analysis indicated that the resting-state functional connectivity between SMA and ParaCG increased after real stimulation, while no significant change was found after sham stimulation. Leave-one-out cross-validation indicated that the LTE in ParaCG could be predicted by the STE after real but not sham stimulations. In an independent cohort, the after-effects of rTMS on ParaCG and short-to long-term prediction were reproduced at the region-of-interest level. These imaging evidences indicate that onesession rTMS can aid to predict the regions responsive to long-term stimulation and the individualized response degree.

Pre‐supplementary motor network connectivity and clinical outcome of magnetic stimulation in obsessive–compulsive disorder

“…One schizophrenia and two healthy datasets ( n = 65) were included to cross‐validate the target‐network mechanism of rTMS. All data were from previously published works (Chen et al, 2018 ; Ji et al, 2020 ). In the schizophrenia cohort, 16 patients received real continuous theta‐burst magnetic stimulation (cTBS) over the left temporo‐parietal junction.…”

“…After 2 weeks of treatment, the primary outcome (i.e., auditory hallucination) was significantly alleviated (Chen et al, 2018 ). In the first healthy cohort, participants were randomly assigned to receive real ( n = 16) or sham ( n = 17) cTBS over the left SMA for 5 days (Ji et al, 2020 ). The second healthy cohort ( n = 16) was recruited to test the reproducibility of the first cohort.…”

A systematic review of the neurobiological effects of theta-burst stimulation (TBS) as measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

“…Matsuta et al ( 2022 ) further add that cTBS to the left motor representation of the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) had no consequences on resting state network activity, including the default mode network (DMN) and primary motor network. Regarding resting-state functional connectivity ([rs]FC) however, cTBS to the M1 hand (Hu et al 2017 ) and suprahyoid muscle (Ruan et al 2017 , 2019 ) representations, as well as the SMA (Ji et al 2017 , 2020 ) resulted in reduced network rsFC. Timing of post-stimulation follow-ups might, however, be a critical factor.…”

Intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (iTBS) as an Optimal Treatment for Schizophrenia Risk Decision: an ERSP Study

“…Each session of iTBS lasted 190 s and consisted of three pulses transmitted at 50 Hz, which was repeated every 200 ms (at 5 Hz) for a total of 600 pulses (34). According to previous methodological research, this 190-s protocol was repeated thrice (1,800 pulses in total) to obtain cumulative aftereffects, with 15 min between each session (controlled by a stopwatch) (35)(36)(37). According to the five-step procedure (38), the resting motor threshold (RMT) was measured at each visit and iTBS was delivered at 80% of the RMT (39).…”