Magnetic stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex increases functional connectivity of a neural network implicated in memory, shows human research published in eNeuro. This finding confirms a previous study, validating further exploration of this technique for experimental and clinical applications.
Five daily sessions of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation had been previously shown by Wang et al. to increase functional connectivity of a hippocampal brain network and improve memory performance in humans. Freedberg et al. now report a successful replication and extension of the original neuroimaging findings with fewer stimulation sessions in healthy adults. The researchers observed enhanced functional connectivity after as few as three daily sessions. Unlike the original study, they did not assess memory performance.
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Journal reference:
Freedberg, M. et al. (2019) Persistent enhancement of hippocampal network connectivity by parietal rTMS is reproducible. eNeuro. doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0129-19.2019.
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