Assessing the mechanisms of brain plasticity by transcranial magnetic stimulation

Author: Ali Jannati1,2,3, Lindsay M Oberman4, Alexander Rotenberg5,6,7, Alvaro Pascual-Leone8,9,10
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Neuromodulation Program, Division of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology, Department of Neurology, Boston Children&#x27;s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. ali.jannati@childrens.harvard.edu. <sup>2</sup> F. M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children&#x27;s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. ali.jannati@childrens.harvard.edu. <sup>3</sup> Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Division of Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. ali.jannati@childrens.harvard.edu. <sup>4</sup> Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA. <sup>5</sup> Neuromodulation Program, Division of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology, Department of Neurology, Boston Children&#x27;s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. <sup>6</sup> F. M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children&#x27;s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. <sup>7</sup> Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Division of Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. <sup>8</sup> Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. apleone@hsl.harvard.edu. <sup>9</sup> Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research and Deanna and Sidney Wolk Center for Memory Health, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, MA, USA. apleone@hsl.harvard.edu. <sup>10</sup> Guttmann Brain Health Institute, Institut Guttmann, Barcelona, Spain. apleone@hsl.harvard.edu.
Conference/Journal: Neuropsychopharmacology
Date published: 2022 Oct 5
Other: Special Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41386-022-01453-8. , Word Count: 167


Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive technique for focal brain stimulation based on electromagnetic induction where a fluctuating magnetic field induces a small intracranial electric current in the brain. For more than 35 years, TMS has shown promise in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders in adults. In this review, we provide a brief introduction to the TMS technique with a focus on repetitive TMS (rTMS) protocols, particularly theta-burst stimulation (TBS), and relevant rTMS-derived metrics of brain plasticity. We then discuss the TMS-EEG technique, the use of neuronavigation in TMS, the neural substrate of TBS measures of plasticity, the inter- and intraindividual variability of those measures, effects of age and genetic factors on TBS aftereffects, and then summarize alterations of TMS-TBS measures of plasticity in major neurological and psychiatric disorders including autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, depression, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes. Finally, we discuss the translational studies of TMS-TBS measures of plasticity and their therapeutic implications.


PMID: 36198876 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-022-01453-8