†These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editor: Hongmin Wang
Background: The left primary motor area (M1) stimulation has recently
been revealed to promote post-stroke aphasia (PSA) recovery, of which a plausible
mechanism might be the semantic and/or the mirror neuron system reorganization,
but the direct evidence is still scarce. The aim of this study was to explore the
functional connectivity (FC) alterations induced by the left M1 intermittent
theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a new transcranial magnetic stimulation paradigm,
in the semantic and mirror neuron systems of PSA patients. Methods:
Sixteen PSA patients accepted the left M1 iTBS and underwent a resting-state
functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) scanning before and immediately after
the first session of iTBS, of which six underwent another fMRI scanning after
twenty sessions of iTBS. Three brain networks covering the semantic and the
mirror neuron systems were constructed using the fMRI data, and the FC
alterations following one-session iTBS were investigated in the networks.
Additional seed-based FC analyses were conducted to explore the longitudinal FC
patterns changes during the course of multi-session iTBS. The Aphasia quotient of
the Chinese version of the western aphasia battery (WAB-AQ) was used to assess
the severity of the language impairments of the participants. The relationship
between the longitudinal WAB-AQ and network FC changes was analyzed by Spearman’s
correlation coefficients in the multi-session iTBS sub-group. Results:
Decreased FCs were noted in the bilateral semantic rather than in the mirror
neuron networks following one-session of iTBS (p
