Treatment of neurological disorders by quadripulse stimulation (QPS): basic mechanisms and clinical trials

人类大脑的神经元适应或新信息的获取，如运动或学校的学习，已知是由我们大脑中的突触可塑性产生的。我们开发了一种新的经颅磁刺激方法来诱导这种突触可塑性，长时程增强或抑制（LTP/LTD），在人脑（四脉冲刺激（QPS））。在这三年中，我们已经证实了QPS的安全性，并表明除了运动皮层之外，还能够在感觉皮层中诱导可塑性。通过功能性MRI和近红外光谱（NIRS）研究了QPS后大脑中的代谢变化。结果表明，QPS效应不受BDNF多态性的影响，这是上级优于其他刺激方法受BDNF多态性的影响。我们还报道了rTMS对帕金森病患者运动症状的临床疗效。

The neuronal adaptation or new information acquisition of human brain, such as studies in sports or schools, is known to be produced by synaptic plasticity in our brain. We developed a new transcranial magnetic stimulation method to induce such synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation or depression (LTP/LTD), in the human brain (quadripulse stimulation (QPS)). In these three years, we have confirmed the safety of QPS and shown that the plasticity is able to be induced in the sensory cortex in addition to the motor cortex. The metabolic changes in the brain after QPS have been studied by functional MRI and also near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). We showed that the QPS effect was not affected by BDNF polymorphism, which is superior to other stimulation methods affected by BDNF polymorphism. We have alsoreported a clinical efficacy of rTMS on motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease.