Trial reportJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2025
Bilateral intermittent theta-burst stimulation as a priming strategy to enhance action observation and imitation training in early parkinson's disease: a proof-of-concept study.
Trial report in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAction observation and imitation training (AOIT) is an evidence-based cognitive-motor rehabilitation strategy for Parkinson's disease (PD), particularly for the postural instability and gait disorder (PIGD) subtype. However, its effectiveness may decline with disease-related impairments in neuroplasticity. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a patterned repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol, can induce LTP-like plasticity and may enhance responsiveness to rehabilitation. This study investigated whether iTBS priming augments AOIT effects on gait and cognition in early-stage PIGD and explored underlying neurophysiological mechanisms.
methodsFifteen patients with early-stage PIGD participated in a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover trial. Each phase included five consecutive days of AOIT preceded by either real or sham iTBS applied over the bilateral leg region of the primary motor cortex, separated by a washout period of more than four weeks. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included dual-task gait analysis, cognitive tests, clinical scales, neurophysiological measures (motor evoked potentials, cortical silent period), and resting-state EEG power spectral density.
resultsBoth conditions improved balance and gait measures. However, real iTBS significantly enhanced dual-task gait automaticity (F = 5.558, P = 0.026) and global cognition (F = 5.294, P = 0.026) compared to sham. Real iTBS also increased cortical silent period (F = 4.655, P = 0.040) and MEP-based cortical plasticity response (F = 6.131, P = 0.020). Improvements in cortical plasticity were significantly correlated with better gait performance (r = - 0.429, P = 0.020) and motor scores (r = - 0.463, P = 0.011). No adverse events were reported.
conclusionsBilateral iTBS targeting the leg representation of the primary motor cortex can potentiate AOIT effects in early-stage PIGD by enhancing cortical plasticity and motor learning. These findings support the integration of iTBS as a priming strategy within cognitive-motor rehabilitation protocols for PD. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2300067657. Registered January 17, 2023.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.