AUTHOR=Yingli Bi , Zunke Gong , Wei Chen , Shiyan Wang 

TITLE=Cerebral activity manipulation of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in post-stroke patients with cognitive impairment

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.951209

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2022.951209

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>The aim of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI).</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Thirty-six PSCI patients were randomly divided into treatment and control groups of equal size. Both groups were pre-treated with conventional cognitive rehabilitation training. Subsequently, the treatment group was exposed to 1 Hz low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulations for 8 weeks, with 5 days per week. Meanwhile, the control group was treated with placebo stimulations. Patients were evaluated <italic>via</italic> the LOTCA scale assessments and changes in P300 latencies and amplitudes before and after 8 weeks of treatment.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Before treatment, there were no significant differences between the two groups in LOTCA scores, P300 latencies, and amplitudes (<italic>P</italic> &gt; 0.05). After treatment, LOTCA scores for both groups improved (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05), and those of the treatment group were higher than those of the control (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). For both groups, P300 latencies were not only shortened but also had greater amplitudes (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05), and those for the treatment group were significantly shorter and larger than those of the control (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>As a therapy, rTMS improved cognitive function in PSCI patients, possibly <italic>via</italic> regulation of neural electrical activity of the cerebral cortex.</p></sec>