94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Imaging and Stimulation
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1514087
Pilot study comparing effects of infrared neuromodulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation using magnetic resonance imaging
Provisionally accepted
Sophia A Bibb 1*
Emily J Yu 2
M. Fiona Molloy 3
John LaRocco 4 Patricia Resnick 5
Kevin Reeves 4 K Luan Phan 4 Sanjay Krishna 2* Zeynep M Saygin 1*- 1 Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States
- 2 Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States
- 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
- 4 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States
- 5 Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
No prior work has directly compared the impacts of transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the human brain. This within-subjects pilot study compares the effects of tPBM and TMS of human somatomotor cortex on brain structural and functional connectivity. Eight healthy participants underwent four lab visits each, each visit consisting of a pre-stimulation MRI, stimulation or sham, and a post-stimulation MRI, respectively. Stimulation and sham sessions were counterbalanced across subjects. Collected measures included structural MRI data, functional MRI data from a finger-tapping task, resting state functional connectivity, and structural connectivity. Analyses indicated increased activation of the left somatomotor region during a right-hand finger-tapping task following both tPBM and TMS. Additionally, trending increases in left-lateralized functional and structural connectivity from M1 to thalamus were observed after tPBM, but not TMS. Thus, tPBM may be superior to TMS at inducing changes in connected nodes in the somatomotor cortex, although further research is warranted to explore the potential therapeutic benefits and clinical utility of tPBM.
Keywords: photobiomodulation, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fractional anisotropy, Resting-state connectivity
Received: 20 Oct 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bibb, Yu, Molloy, LaRocco, Resnick, Reeves, Phan, Krishna and Saygin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Sophia A Bibb, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, United States
Sanjay Krishna, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, United States
Zeynep M Saygin, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.