4.6 Article

Frequency-Dependent Effects of Cerebellar Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Visuomotor Accuracy

Journal

FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 16, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.804027

Keywords

cerebellum; repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation; visuomotor coordination; visuomotor accuracy; visuomotor stability; frequency-dependent effect

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Funding

  1. Ministry of Science and Technology

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The study found that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has frequency-dependent modulatory effects on visuomotor accuracy, enhancing it in the high-frequency group and disrupting it in the low-frequency group. However, rTMS did not significantly affect visuomotor stability. This suggests that visuomotor accuracy and stability are controlled by different neural mechanisms and highlights the potential for training strategies based on cerebellar neuromodulation.
The cerebellum plays a critical role in acquiring visuomotor skills. Visuomotor task mastery requires improving both visuomotor accuracy and stability; however, the cerebellum's contribution to these processes remains unclear. We hypothesized that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the cerebellum exerts frequency-dependent modulatory effects on both accuracy and stability in subjects performing a visuomotor coordination task (i.e., pursuit rotor task). We recruited 43 healthy volunteers and randomly assigned them to the high-frequency (HF), low-frequency (LF), and sham rTMS groups. We calculated changes in performance of the pursuit rotor task at the highest rotation speed and the minimum distance from target as indices of accuracy. We also calculated the intertrial variability (standard deviations) of time on target and distance from target as indices of stability. Visuomotor accuracy was significantly enhanced in the HF group and disrupted in the LF group compared to the sham group, indicating frequency-dependent effects of rTMS. In contrast, both HF and LF rTMS demonstrated no significant change in visuomotor stability. Surprisingly, our findings demonstrated that the accuracy and stability of visuomotor performance may be differentially influenced by cerebellar rTMS. This suggests that visuomotor accuracy and stability have different underlying neural mechanisms and revealed the possibility of training strategies based on cerebellar neuromodulation.

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