Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34129889›Full record

ArticleProgress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry2021

Reduced TMS-evoked fast oscillations in the motor cortex predict the severity of positive symptoms in first-episode psychosis.

Francesco Luciano Donati, Rachel Kaskie, Catarina Cardoso Reis, Armando D'Agostino, Adenauer Girardi Casali, Fabio Ferrarelli

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
0.7field-weighted citation impact, top 31% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Clinical utility and prospective of TMS-EEG: Updated review from an international expert group.Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Francesco Luciano DonatiDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America; Department of Health Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Rachel KaskieDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America.
Catarina Cardoso ReisInstitute of Science and Technology, Federal University of São Paulo, São José dos Campos, Brazil.
Armando D'AgostinoDepartment of Health Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Adenauer Girardi CasaliInstitute of Science and Technology, Federal University of São Paulo, São José dos Campos, Brazil.
Fabio FerrarelliDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America. Electronic address: ferrarellif@upmc.edu.
Universidade Federal de São Paulo · BRUniversity of Milan · ITUniversity of Pittsburgh · US

Funding

Enhancing prefrontal oscillatory activity and working memory performance with noninvasive brain stimulation in early-course schizophreniaR01MH125816 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI FERRARELLI, FABIO · 2021 to 2025
$3.5M
Reduced natural oscillatory frequency of DLPFC in early course SCZ: a TMS/EEG studyR21MH119543 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI FERRARELLI, FABIO · 2019 to 2020
$419k
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH125816NIMH NIH HHS R21 MH119543
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Accumulating evidence points to neurophysiological abnormalities of the motor cortex in Schizophrenia (SCZ). However, whether these abnormalities represent a core biological feature of psychosis rather than a superimposed neurodegenerative process is yet to be defined, as it is their putative relationship with clinical symptoms. in this study, we used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation coupled with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) to probe the intrinsic oscillatory properties of motor (Brodmann Area 4, BA4) and non-motor (posterior parietal, BA7) cortical areas in twenty-three first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients and thirteen age and gender-matched healthy comparison (HC) subjects. Patients underwent clinical evaluation at baseline and six-months after the TMS-EEG session. We found that FEP patients had reduced EEG activity evoked by TMS of the motor cortex in the beta-2 (25-34 Hz) frequency band in a cluster of electrodes overlying BA4, relative to HC participants. Beta-2 deficits in the TMS-evoked EEG response correlated with worse positive psychotic symptoms at baseline and also predicted positive symptoms severity at six-month follow-up assessments. Altogether, these findings indicate that reduced TMS-evoked fast oscillatory activity in the motor cortex is an early neural abnormality that: 1) is present at illness onset; 2) may represent a state marker of psychosis; and 3) could play a role in the development of new tools of outcome prediction in psychotic patients.

Indexed as

Transcranial Magnetic StimulationAdultElectroencephalographyFemaleHumansMaleMotor CortexPsychotic DisordersFirst episode psychosisMotor cortexNeurophysiologyOutcome predictionSchizophreniaTMS-EEG

Identifiers

PMID34129889
PMCPMC8380703
OpenAlexW3169083120

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.