Browsing by Author "Strzalkowski, Nicholas D. J."

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    Both 50 and 30 Hz continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation depresses the cerebellum
    (2018-08-16) Strzalkowski, Nicholas D. J.; Chau, Aaron D.; Gan, Liu Shi; Kiss, Zelma H. T.
    The cerebellum is implicated in the pathophysiology of numerous movement disorders, which makes it an attractive target for non-invasive neurostimulation. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) can induce long-lasting plastic changes in human brain; however, the efficacy of different simulation protocols has not been investigated at the cerebellum. Here, we compare a traditional 50-Hz and a modified 30-Hz cTBS protocols at modulating cerebellar activity in healthy subjects. Seventeen healthy adults participated in two testing sessions where they received either 50-Hz (cTBS50) or 30-Hz (cTBS30) cerebellar cTBS. Cerebellar brain inhibition (CBI), a measure of cerebello-thalamocortical pathway strength, and motor-evoked potentials (MEP) were measured in the dominant first dorsal interosseous muscle before and after (up to ~ 40 min) cerebellar cTBS. Both cTBS protocols induced cerebellar depression, indicated by significant reductions in CBI (P < 0.001). No differences were found between protocols (cTBS50 and cTBS30) at any time point (P = 0.983). MEP amplitudes were not significantly different following either cTBS protocol (P = 0.130). The findings show cerebellar excitability to be equally depressed by 50-Hz and 30-Hz cTBS in healthy adults and support future work to explore the efficacy of different cerebellar cTBS protocols in movement disorder patients where cerebellar depression could provide therapeutic benefits.