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Enhancement of motor skill acquisition by intermittent theta burst stimulation: a pilot study

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Abstract

Objective

This study aims to analyze the effects of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) on motor skill acquisition of healthy subjects when applied on alternate days to ensure high adherence to treatment.

Materials and methods

Ten healthy participants (40–54 years) were included in the study. The control group (CG) (60% female) only received motor training (i.e., finger tapping task-FTTa), whereas the experimental group (EG) (100% female) received iTBS in addition to the motor training (every other day for 5 sessions). Cortical excitability measurements were taken with TMS. The correct sequences of the finger tapping test (FTTe) were recorded for behavioral analysis.

Results

While SICI was increased by 0.03 in EG, ICF was increased by 0.18 between pre-and post-treatment. On the other hand, CG had a lower ICF difference (MD: 0.05) and a higher SICI difference (MD: 0.21). There was no difference between EG and CG in FTTe at the end of the intervention (p > 0.05 for all variables), except for the increased number of correct sequences within the EG (p = 0.018). There was a significant difference in FTTa between EG and CG, in favor of EG (p = 0.042). The effect size was 0.62.

Conclusion

Although no difference was found in terms of cortical excitability and FTTe between the EG and CG at the end of the alternate-day treatment, it seemed like iTBS increased cortical facilitation further than CG. Furthermore, the number of correct sequences in FTTe and FTTa was significantly increased in EG, showing that intermittent iTBS might improve motor learning and performance.

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Data availability

There are no linked data sets for this paper. The data is confidential since the participant of this study was informed upon admission to the hospital that the data would remain confidential and would not be shared with third parties.

Code availability

Not Applicable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Marlene Bönstrup for kindly sharing their task design. Also, our sincere thanks to Seda Nur Erol and Tülin Kesim Türkan for their great help during the study.

Funding

This research did not receive any funding from agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Esma Nur Kolbaşı

  2. Institute of Graduate Studies, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Istanbul, Turkey

    Esma Nur Kolbaşı

  3. Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Marmara University, Başıbüyük Cd. No:9, Maltepe, 34854, Istanbul, Turkey

    Burcu Ersöz Hüseyinsinoğlu

  4. Department of Neurology, Bakırkoy Prof. Dr. Mazhar Osman Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatric, Neurologic and Neurosurgical Diseases, Istanbul Health Sciences University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Zeynep Özdemir & Aysun Soysal

  5. Department of Physiology, International School of Medicine, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Zübeyir Bayraktaroğlu

  6. Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technologies (SABITA), Functional Imaging and Cognitive Affective Neuroscience Laboratory (fINCAN), Istanbul, Turkey

    Zübeyir Bayraktaroğlu

Authors
  1. Esma Nur Kolbaşı
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  2. Burcu Ersöz Hüseyinsinoğlu
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  3. Zeynep Özdemir
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  5. Aysun Soysal
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the conceptualization, methodology, and manuscript preparation. Formal analysis and investigation were carried out by ENK, BEH, and ZÖ. The research was supervised by BEH, ZB, and AS.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Burcu Ersöz Hüseyinsinoğlu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by Istanbul Medipol University Clinical Trials Ethics Committee (date 17.06.2021-no.684) and administered according to the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects by the Helsinki Declaration.

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Both written and verbal consent was obtained from the participants before the study.

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It was obtained from the participant.

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Kolbaşı, E.N., Hüseyinsinoğlu, B.E., Özdemir, Z. et al. Enhancement of motor skill acquisition by intermittent theta burst stimulation: a pilot study. Acta Neurol Belg 123, 971–977 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-022-02155-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-022-02155-0

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