Akinesia in Parkinson's disease. II: Effects of subthreshold repetitive transcranial motor cortex stimulation

• Published in: Neurology Vol. 44; no. 5; pp. 892 - 898
• Main Authors: PASCUAL-LEONE, A, VALLS-SOLE, J, BRASIL-NETO, J. P, CAMMAROTA, A, GRAFMAN, J, HALLETT, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hagerstown, MD Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 01-05-1994
• Subjects: Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Evoked Potentials; Female; Humans; Magnetics; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Motor Activity; Motor Cortex - physiopathology; Movement Disorders - etiology; Movement Disorders - physiopathology; Neurology; Parkinson Disease - complications; Parkinson Disease - physiopathology; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Human; Motion; Nervous system diseases; Akinesia; Motor system disorder; Error rate; Parkinson disease; Exploration; Stimulation; Duration; Cerebral disorder; Magnetic; Motor cortex; Central nervous system disease; Repetitive stimulus; Reaction time; Degenerative disease; Motor evoked potential; Neurological disorder; Extrapyramidal syndrome
• ISSN: 0028-3878; 1526-632X
• DOI: 10.1212/wnl.44.5.892

We studied the effects of repetitive transcranial stimulation of the motor cortex (rTMS) on choice reaction time (cRT), movement time (MT), and error rate (ER) in a serial reaction-time task in six medicated patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 10 age-matched normal controls. In normal subjects, subthreshold 5-Hz rTMS did not significantly change cRT, slightly shortened MT, but increased ER. In the patients, rTMS significantly shortened cRT and MT without affecting ER. These effects did not impair procedural learning. Performance on a grooved peg-board test was improved by rTMS in the same PD patients, especially when they were off medications, but worsened in the normal subjects. Repetitive, subthreshold motor cortex stimulation can improve performance in patients with PD and could be useful therapeutically.