Search results for " rTMS"
showing 10 items of 20 documents
Increased migraine-free intervals with multifocal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.
2021
Introduction: Episodic migraine is a debilitating condition associated with vast impairments of health, daily living, and life quality. Several prophylactic treatments exist, having a moderate ratio of action related to side effects and therapy costs. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an evidence based therapy in several neuropsychiatric conditions, showing robust efficacy in alleviating specific symptoms. However, its efficacy in migraine disorders is unequivocal and might be tightly linked to the applied rTMS protocol. We hypothesized that multifocal rTMS paradigm could improve clinical outcomes in patients with episodic migraine by reducing the number of migraine day…
Cortical networks of procedural learning: Evidence from cerebellar damage
2007
The lateral cerebellum plays a critical role in procedural learning that goes beyond the strict motor control functions attributed to it. Patients with cerebellar damage show marked impairment in the acquisition of procedures, as revealed by their performance on the serial reaction time task (SRTT). Here we present the case of a patient affected by ischemic damage involving the left cerebellum who showed a selective deficit in procedural learning while performing the SRTT with the left hand. The deficit recovered when the cortical excitability of an extensive network involving both cerebellar hemispheres and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was decreased by low-frequency repetitiv…
rTMS evidence of different delay and decision processes in a fronto-parietal neuronal network activated during spatial working memory.
2003
The existence of a specific and widely distributed network for spatial working memory (WM) in humans, involving the posterior parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex, is supported by a number of neuroimaging studies. We used a repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) approach to investigate the temporal dynamics and the reciprocal interactions of the different areas of the parieto-frontal network in normal subjects performing a spatial WM task, with the aim to compare neural activity of the different areas in the delay and decision phases of the task. Trains of rTMS at 25 Hz were delivered over the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), the premotor cortex (SFG) and the dorsolateral …
Is There a Future for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation as a Therapeutic Tool?
2019
Several techniques and protocols of non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation (NIBS), including transcranial magnetic and electrical stimuli, have been developed in the past decades. These techniques can induce long lasting changes in cortical excitability by promoting synaptic plasticity and thus may represent a therapeutic option in neuropsychiatric disorders. On the other hand, despite these techniques have become popular, the fragility and variability of the after effects are the major challenges that non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation currentlyfaces. Several factors may account for such a variability such as biological variations, measurement reproducibility, and the neurona…
Bilateral Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Prefrontal Cortex Reduces Cocaine Intake: A Pilot Study
2016
Background Chronic cocaine consumption is associated with a decrease in mesolimbic dopamine transmission that maintains drug intake. transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is gaining reliability, a useful therapeutic tool in drug addiction, since it can modulate cortico-limbic activity resulting in reduction of drug craving. Aims In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic effect of bilateral TMS of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in reducing cocaine intake, in a sample of treatment-seeking patients with current cocaine use disorder (DSM-V). Methods Ten cocaine addicts (DSM-V) were randomly assigned to the active or sham stimulation protocol in a double-blind experimental design. Twelve …
Effects of Neuromodulation on Gait
2018
In the last decades, non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has evolved to become a valuable tool in both basic and clinical neuroscience. Various methods of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) have been widely used for diagnostic, prognostic and even therapeutic applications in a broad range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The rationale for using NIBS techniques lies in the possibility to modulate, in a targeted manner, the activity of different cerebral and cerebellar cortical regions, as well as the functional connections between these areas and distant brain regions also including subcortical structures. The neural circuitry in…
Modulatory effects of 1 Hz rTMS over the cerebellum on motor cortex excitability
2005
Clinical observations and data from animal experiments point to a physiological facilitatory influence of the deep cerebellar structures on the motor system through the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathways. The aim of the present study was to explore the long-term effects of low-frequency (1 Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the cerebellum on short intracortical inhibition (SICI) and facilitation (ICF) of the motor cortex in normal subjects. Eight healthy subjects (mean age 26.9 +/- 3.1) underwent 1 Hz frequency rTMS delivered on the right cerebellar hemisphere. Before and after cerebellar rTMS, SICI and ICF were assessed in the motor cortex contralateral to the st…
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during capsaicin-induced pain: modulatory effects o…
2009
Evidence by functional imaging studies suggests the role of left DLPFC in the inhibitory control of nociceptive transmission system. Pain exerts an inhibitory modulation on motor cortex, reducing MEP amplitude, while the effect of pain on motor intracortical excitability has not been studied so far. In the present study, we explored in healthy subjects the effect of capsaicin-induced pain and the modulatory influences of left DLPFC stimulation on motor corticospinal and intracortical excitability. Capsaicin was applied on the dorsal surface of the right hand, and measures of motor corticospinal excitability (test-MEP) and short intracortical inhibition (SICI) and facilitation (ICF) were obt…
Cortical excitability in episodic cluster headache
2014
Background: Cluster headache (CH) is a severe primary headache disorder, whose pathophysiological processes remain largely unknown. Along with central disinhibition of the trigeminal nociceptive system and hypothalamic impairment, a cortical involvement has been supposed. Aim: To evaluate cortical excitability in episodic CH patients by using different paradigms of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Methods: Twenty-five patients with episodic CH and thirteen healthy subjects underwent an experimental session where we evaluated, in both hemispheres, motor-cortical response to: 1) single-pulse TMS: i.e. motor threshold (MT); input-output (IO) curves and cortical silent period (CSP) and …
Repetitive TMS of cerebellum interferes with millisecond time processing
2007
Time processing is important in several cognitive and motor functions, but it is still unclear how the human brain perceives time intervals of different durations. Processing of time in millisecond and second intervals may depend on different neural networks and there is now considerable evidence to suggest that these intervals are possibly measured by independent brain mechanisms. Using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), we determined that the cerebellum is essential in explicit temporal processing of millisecond time intervals. In the first experiment, subjects' performance in a time reproduction task of short (400-600 ms) and long (1,600-2,400 ms) intervals, were evalua…