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  • Structural correlates under...
    Ji, Gong‐Jun; Liu, Tingting; Li, Ying; Liu, Pingping; Sun, Jinmei; Chen, Xingui; Tian, Yanghua; Chen, Xianwen; Dahmani, Louisa; Liu, Hesheng; Wang, Kai; Hu, Panpan

    Human brain mapping, 15 April 2021, Volume: 42, Issue: 6
    Journal Article

    Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique with great potential in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed to investigate the clinical efficacy of accelerated rTMS and to understand the underlying neural mechanism. In a double‐blinded way, a total of 42 patients with PD were randomized to receive real (n = 22) or sham (n = 20) continuous theta‐burst stimulation (cTBS) on the left supplementary motor area (SMA) for 14 consecutive days. Patients treated with real cTBS, but not with sham cTBS, showed a significant improvement in Part III of the Unified PD Rating Scale (p < .0001). This improvement was observed as early as 1 week after the start of cTBS treatment, and maintained 8 weeks after the end of the treatment. These findings indicated that the treatment response was swift with a long‐lasting effect. Imaging analyses showed that volume of the left globus pallidus (GP) increased after cTBS treatment. Furthermore, the volume change of GP was mildly correlated with symptom improvement and associated with the baseline fractional anisotropy of SMA‐GP tracts. Together, these findings implicated that the accelerated cTBS could effectively alleviate motor symptoms of PD, maybe by modulating the motor circuitry involving the SMA‐GP pathway. An accelerated continuous theta‐burst stimulation protocol significantly alleviates motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease. Symptom improvement can be observed as early as 1 week after the start of treatment, and maintained 8 weeks after the end of treatment. Gray matter volume in the globus pallidus (GP) increased after treatment, and the increment was positively correlated with symptom improvement as well as baseline supplementary motor area‐GP structural connectivity.