Review Article
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Alzheimer's Disease: A Review of Investigational and Therapeutic Findings
Stefano Pallanti1-3* and Anna Marras3
1UC Davis School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Sacramento, CA, USA.
2Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, New York, USA.
3University of Florence, Department of Neuroscience, Florence, Italy
- Corresponding Author:
- Stefano Pallanti, M.D., Ph.D.
3 Largo Brambilla, 50134 Firenze, Italy
Tel: 055 794 9707
Fax: 055 581051
E-mail: stefanopallanti@yahoo.it
Received date: February 12, 2015; Accepted date: March 31, 2015; Published date: April 07, 2015
Citation: Pallanti S, Marras A (2015) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Review of Investigational and Therapeutic Findings. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 5:187. doi:10.4172/2161-0460.1000187
Copyright: © 2015 Pallanti S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology still remains unclear and current pharmacological strategies have limited effectiveness, so that the search for alternative and/or complementary therapeutic strategies is a compelling need, as well as a detailed characterization of the disease progression and its neurophysiological correlates. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS),has been employed by a number of studies to physiologically characterize AD, investigating cortical reactivity, plasticity and functional connectivity. A few studies also investigated the therapeutic role of repetitive TMS to enhance cognitive functions in AD. Herein we review a total of thirty-two studies evaluating both investigational and therapeutic role of TMS. Although promising, therapeutic results are still very preliminary and need to be taken with caution, while insights have been provided by most investigational studies.
