RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Effects of transcranial alternating-current stimulation to secondary motor areas on cortical oscillations in stroke patients
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 529818
DO 10.1101/529818
A1 Lutz A. Krawinkel
A1 Marlene Bönstrup
A1 Jan F. Feldheim
A1 Robert Schulz
A1 Winifried Backhaus
A1 Till R. Schneider
A1 Jonas Misselhorn
A1 Bastian Cheng
A1 Christian Gerloff
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/15/529818.abstract
AB Background There is growing evidence that secondary motor areas are relevant for recovery after motor stroke. Communication among brain areas occurs via synchronization of oscillatory activity which can potentially be modulated via transcranial alternating-current stimulation (tACS).Hypothesis We hypothesized that tACS to secondary motor areas of the stroke-lesioned hemisphere leads to modulation of task-related connectivity among primary and secondary motor areas, reflected in metrics of EEG coupling in the frequency domain.Methods We applied focal tACS at 1mA peak-to-peak intensity to ipsilesional ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and supplementary motor area (SMA) in chronic stroke patients while they moved their impaired hand. To probe effects of stimulation on cortical oscillations, several task-related EEG-based connectivity metrics (coherence, imaginary coherence, phase-locking value, mutual information) were assessed before and after each stimulation.Results Overall, we found significant but weak modulations of the motor network by tACS. Stimulation of PMv reduced task-related coupling between (i) both primary motor cortices (M1) (coherence, −0.0514±0.0665 (mean±SD, active stimulation) vs. 0.0085±0.0888 (sham), p=0.0029) and (ii) between ipsilesional M1 and contralesional PMv (coherence, - 0.0386±0.0703 vs. 0.0226±0.0694, p=0.0283; phase-locking value, −0.0363±0.0581 vs. 0.0036±0.0497, p=0.0097) compared with sham stimulation.Conclusions In this exploratory analysis, tACS to the ipsilesional PMv induced a weak decrease of task-related connectivity between ipsilesional M1 and contralesional M1 and PMv. As an excess of interhemispheric coupling is under discussion as maladaptive phenomenon of motor reorganization after stroke (e.g., bimodal balance-recovery model), tACS-induced reduction of coupling might be an interesting approach to assist re-normalization of the post-stroke motor network.