Aberrant neuroplasticity in autism spectrum disorder

Developments have taken place within the neurobiology research in Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and results from these studies indicate that the brain in ASD is related to aberrant neuroplasticity. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has quickly evolved to become a widely used, safe, and non-invasive neuroscientific tool to analyze a spread of neuroscience processes, as neuroplasticity. The diagnostic and therapeutic potential of TMS in ASD is setting out to be realized. during this article, we concisely reviewed the proof of aberrant neuroplasticity in ASD, steered future directions in assessing neuroplasticity exploitation repetitive TMS (rTMS), and mentioned the potential of rTMS in rectifying aberrant neuroplasticity in ASD.

Statistical Analysis of Graph-Theoretic Indices to Study EEG-TMS Connectivity in Patients With Depression

AimThe objective of this work was to demonstrate the usefulness of a novel statistical method to study the impact of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on brain connectivity in patients with depression using different stimulation protocols, i.e., 1 Hz repetitive TMS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (protocol G1), 10 Hz repetitive TMS over the left DLPFC (G2), and intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) consisting of three 50 Hz burst bundle repeated at 5 Hz frequency (G3).MethodsElectroencephalography (EEG) connectivity analysis was performed using Directed Transfer Function (DTF) and a set of 21 indices based on graph theory. The statistical analysis of graph-theoretic indices consisted of a combination of the k-NN rule, the leave-one-out method, and a statistical test using a 2 × 2 contingency table.ResultsOur new statistical approach allowed for selection of the best set of graph-based indices derived from DTF, and for differentiation between conditions (i.e., before and after TMS) and between TMS protocols. The effects of TMS was found to differ based on frequency band.ConclusionA set of four brain asymmetry measures were particularly useful to study protocol- and frequency-dependent effects of TMS on brain connectivity.SignificanceThe new approach would allow for better evaluation of the therapeutic effects of TMS and choice of the most appropriate stimulation protocol.