White Matter Biomarkers Associated with Motor Change in Individuals with Stroke: A Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation Study.

White Matter Biomarkers Associated with Motor Change in Individuals with Stroke: A Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation Study. Neural Plast. 2019;2019:7092496 Authors: Wadden KP, Peters S, Borich MR, Neva JL, Hayward KS, Mang CS, Snow NJ, Brown KE, Woodward TS, Meehan SK, Boyd LA Abstract Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a form of noninvasive repetitive brain stimulation that, when delivered over the contralesional hemisphere, can influence the excitability of the ipsilesional hemisphere in individuals with stroke. cTBS applied prior to skilled motor practice interventions may augment motor learning; however, there is a high degree of variability in individual response to this intervention. The main objective of the present study was to assess white matter biomarkers of response to cTBS paired with skilled motor practice in individuals with chronic stroke. We tested the effects of stimulation of the contralesional hemisphere at the site of the primary motor cortex (M1c) or primary somatosensory cortex (S1c) and a third group who received sham stimulation. Within each stimulation group, individuals were categorized into responders or nonresponders based on their capacity for motor skill change. Baseline diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) indexed the underlying white matter microstructure of a previously known motor learning network, named the constrained motor connectome (CMC), as well as the corticospinal tract (CST) of lesione...
Source: Neural Plasticity - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neural Plast Source Type: research