{"doi":"10.1101/2024.09.16.612091","title":"Functional MRI reveals regional changes of brain activity after five days of focal high-density theta burst stimulation (hdTBS) of the rat brain","abstract":"Abstract Background The therapeutic effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) likely stem from neuroplasticity induced by repeated sessions over time. While animal models offer insights into TMS-induced plasticity, a rodent model that faithfully replicates prolonged TMS conditions in humans is still lacking. Objective/Hypothesis Develop a rat model that mimics the spatial and temporal patterns of TMS in humans. Methods Experiments were conducted on two cohorts of healthy adult rats (N=33). In cohort 1, rats underwent surgical implantation of microelectrodes for motor evoked potential (MEP) recording. With a rodent-specific coil and the high-density theta burst stimulation (hdTBS) paradigm, under awake condition, rats received daily TMS at 100% motor threshold for five days (days 1-5) to the hindlimb motor cortex. Cortical excitability was measured by input-output (I-O) curves on Day 0 (pre-hdTBS baseline) and Day 6 (post-hdTBS). The second cohort received identical TMS and underwent fMRI to map cerebral blood volume (CBV) on Days 0 and 6. Results Daily hdTBS session for 5 days significantly up-shifted I-O curves only in the TMS group (N=9), not in the sham group (N=7), indicating enhanced cortical excitability. fMRI data showed that, compared to sham group (N=9), rats receiving hdTBS (N=8) had increased basal CBV in several brain regions proximal and distal to the stimulation site, suggesting enhanced basal metabolism. Conclusion(s) Daily hdTBS session for 5 days focally delivered to the motor cortex of naïve rats significantly altered basal brain activity in a network of brain regions, opening a novel platform for further investigating TMS-induced plasticity.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2024,"id":503447,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9386,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1149175,"name":"Samantha Hoffman","orcid":"0009-0008-7486-2101","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":693563,"name":"Hieu Nguyen","orcid":"0000-0002-5154-0125","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1353751,"name":"Aidan Carney","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1353322,"name":"Ying Duan","orcid":"0009-0005-3288-9785","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":863692,"name":"Zilu Ma","orcid":"0000-0001-6400-3671","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":555724,"name":"Nanyin Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-5824-9058","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":291970,"name":"Yihong Yang","orcid":"0000-0002-1035-5038","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":832309,"name":"Hanbing Lu","orcid":"0000-0001-7688-8710","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1353321,"name":"Qiong Li","orcid":"0000-0001-5936-7059","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":49,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:10:31.826282Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}