Improved Cognitive Promotion through Accelerated Magnetic Stimulation

Noninvasive brain stimulation to enhance cognition is an area of increasing research interest. Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is a novel accelerated form of stimulation, which more closely mimics the brain's natural firing patterns and may have greater effects on cognitive performance. We report...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eNeuro 2021-01, Vol.8 (1), p.ENEURO.0392-20.2020
Main Authors: Wu, Xingqi, Wang, Lu, Geng, Zhi, Wei, Ling, Yan, Yibing, Xie, Chengjuan, Chen, Xingui, Ji, Gong-Jun, Tian, Yanghua, Wang, Kai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Cognition
Confirmation
Executive Function
Female
Humans
Magnetic Phenomena
Male
Memory, Short-Term
Theta Rhythm
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
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Summary:Noninvasive brain stimulation to enhance cognition is an area of increasing research interest. Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is a novel accelerated form of stimulation, which more closely mimics the brain's natural firing patterns and may have greater effects on cognitive performance. We report here the comparative assessment of the effect of conventional high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) protocols and TBS protocols on cognition enhancement in healthy controls. Sixty healthy adults (34 males and 26 females) were randomized and counterbalanced and assigned to HF-rTMS (  = 20), TBS (  = 20), or sham (  = 20) groups. The promotion effects of different parameters of prefrontal stimulation on working memory and executive function were compared, as assessed by performance in N-back tasks and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Both HF-rTMS and intermittent TBS (iTBS) groups displayed a significant improvement in N-back tasks, with an effect size of 0.79 and 1.50, respectively. Furthermore, the iTBS group displayed a significant improvement in the WCST, with an effect size of 0.84. The iTBS group demonstrated higher effect sizes than the HF-rTMS group ( = 2.68, = 0.011), with an effect size of 0.85. However, no improvement in other tasks was observed ( > 0.05). Intermittent TBS has a stronger cognitive promoting effect than conventional rTMS. In summary, our findings provide direct evidence that iTBS may be a superior protocol for cognitive promotion.
ISSN:2373-2822
2373-2822
DOI:10.1523/ENEURO.0392-20.2020