Continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation and signal detection performance on a military go/no-go task

Abstract Introduction Repetitive transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is an emerging non-pharmacological treatment method utilized to treat multiple clinical diagnoses to include anxiety, depression, and now insomnia. As part of a larger project, we showed that a single rTMS stimulation with continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to the default mode network (DMN) was associated with improved sleep. However, there is little known about potential effects on attention and vigilance because of cTBS to the DMN. We hypothesized that active cTBS would have no significant impact on signal detection tasks post-TMS administration. Methods Twenty adults with clinical insomnia completed this study (Mage=26.90, SD=6.56). Participants completed two overnight visits in total; one where they received active cTBS and one where they received sham cTBS over an easily accessible node of the DMN (left angular gyrus). We analyzed signal detection performance utilizing a Go-No-Go (GNG) task. Three variables were calculated as a result: hit rate, correct rejection rate, and false alarm rate. Higher scores on hit rate and correct rejection rate indicate higher correct responses. Higher scores on false alarm rate indicates a higher number of incorrect responses. We conducted a repeated measures ANOVA with factors of condition, administration, and reversal. Results There was no main effect of condition on GNG hit rate (F(1,17)=1.365, p=.259, ηp2 =.074), GNG false alarm rate (F(1,17)=.210, p=.091, ηp2 =.244), or GNG correct rejection rate (F(1, 17)=1.677, p=.213, ηp2 =.090). We also found there were no significant interaction effects of TMS condition on performance on reversal conditions for GNG hit rate (F(1,17)=0.45, p=.834, ηp2 =.003), GNG false alarm rate (F(1,17)=1.572, p=.227, ηp2 =.085), or GNG correct rejection rate (F(1, 17)=1.510, p=.236, ηp2 =.082). Posthoc pairwise comparisons demonstrated that participants did not significantly differ on GNG hit rate, false alarm rate, or correct rejection rate between their active cTBS and sham cTBS session (p>.05). Conclusion Active cTBS was not significantly associated with any decline in response inhibition or signal detection. It is helpful for future recipients to know they are not adversely affected in attention or vigilance after receiving cTBS rTMS of the DMN for treatment of insomnia. Support (if any) W81XWH2010173