Theta burst stimulation on the fronto-cerebellar connective network promotes cognitive processing speed in the simple cognitive task

Ning Zhao; Jing Tao; Clive Wong; Jing-Song Wu; Jiao Liu; Li-Dian Chen; Tatia M C Lee; Yanwen Xu; Chetwyn C H Chan

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2024.1387299

Theta burst stimulation on the fronto-cerebellar connective network promotes cognitive processing speed in the simple cognitive task

Front Hum Neurosci. 2024 Jul 19:18:1387299. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1387299. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Ning Zhao^{1

2}, Jing Tao^{1

3}, Clive Wong⁴, Jing-Song Wu^{1

3}, Jiao Liu^{1

3}, Li-Dian Chen^{1

3}, Tatia M C Lee^{5

6}, Yanwen Xu⁷, Chetwyn C H Chan⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China.
² Department of Rehabilitation, The 6th Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University Medical School, Shenzhen, China.
³ National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Rehabilitation Medicine Technology, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁶ Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Human Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁷ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Wuxi, China.

Abstract

Background: The fronto-cerebellar functional network has been proposed to subserve cognitive processing speed. This study aims to elucidate how the long-range frontal-to-cerebellar effective connectivity contributes to faster speed.

Methods: In total, 60 healthy participants were randomly allocated to three five-daily sessions of transcranial magnetic stimulation conditions, namely intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS, excitatory), continuous theta-burst stimulation (CTBS, inhibitory), or a sham condition. The sites of the stimulations were the right pre-supplementary motor area (RpSMA), medial cerebellar vermis VI (MCV6), and vertex, respectively. Performances in two reaction time tasks were recorded at different time points.

Results: Post-stimulation speeds revealed marginal decreases in the simple but not complex task. Nevertheless, participants in the excitatory RpSMA and inhibitory MCV6 conditions showed direct and negative path effects on faster speeds compared to the sham condition in the simple reaction time (SRT) task (β = -0.320, p = 0.045 and β = -0.414, p = 0.007, respectively). These path effects were not observed in the SDMT task.

Discussion: RpSMA and MCV6 were involved in promoting the path effects of faster reaction times on simple cognitive task. This study offers further evidence to support their roles within the long-range frontal-to-cerebellar connectivity subserving cognitive processing speed. The enhancement effects, however, are likely limited to simple rather than complex mental operations.

Keywords: TMS; cognitive processing speed; fronto-cerebellar; functional connectivity; reaction time.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was partially supported by the Peter T. C. Lee Endowed Professorship fund and the Wuxi Taihu Lake Talent Development Program in Medical and Health (THRC 23074004) awarded to CC. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.