Therapeutic effects of TMS on PISEI patients and the changes in brain function
post‐stroke cognitive impairment
CORTEX
In this study, PISEI patients were stimulated once by TMS with a frequency of 10 Hz. Interestingly, we discovered that after TMS intervention, the Stroop test performance of PISEI patients was markedly better, executive function was significantly enhanced and the activities of left DLPFC, right PMC, and right SM1 brain regions were significantly active compared with those before TMS intervention. At the same time, the strength of the functional connection between them was also substantially improved, demonstrating that high‐frequency TMS may have a favorable effect on PISEI patients, which may be related to the activation of left DLPFC, right PMC, and right SM1 brain regions and the enhancement of synergistic neural remodeling. Our previous study showed that DLPFC stimulation with high‐frequency TMS can enhance the overall cognitive function, attention, memory, and executive function of patients with post‐stroke cognitive impairment, which has a certain synergistic effect on cognitive training therapy, and hints that this may be related to changes in the activity of frontal cortex.Others reported that stimulation of the DLPFC by high‐frequency TMS can substantially enhance the cognition, memory function, working memory, attention function, and emotional state of PSCI patients.As we all know, the accuracy and targeting of TMS localization is an important guarantee for the effectiveness of PISEI intervention. Otherwise, it is easy to “miss” the target. In this work, we utilized an infrared optics‐based navigation system for TMS localization, which can promptly and precisely locate the brain target area and overcome the shortcomings of conventional over‐reliance on operator experience. In addition, we used TMS‐compatible fNIRS to monitor the hemodynamic changes of local brain regions in real time and dynamically to infer the neural activity and provide real‐time feedback and intervention guidance for rehabilitation treatment. Current studies have also guided TMS interventions in cognitive function through fNIRS. For example, Curtin et al.