title: TMS enhances retention of a motor skill in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In Parkinson's disease (PD), skill retention is poor, even when acquisition rate is generally preserved. Recent work in normal subjects suggests that 5 Hz-repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (5Hz-rTMS) may induce phenomena of long-term potentiation at the cortical level.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We thus verified whether, in PD, 5Hz-rTMS enhances retention of a visuo-motor skill that involves the activity of the right posterior parietal cortex.
  
  
  METHODS
  A group of patients with PD was tested in two two-day sessions, separated by one week (treatment and placebo sessions). The first day of each session, they learned to adapt their movements to a step-wise 60° visual rotation. Immediately after the task, either real 5Hz-rTMS (treatment) or sham (placebo) stimulation was applied over the right posterior parietal cortex (P6). Retention of this motor skill was tested the following day.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In patients with PD, adaptation achieved at the end of training was comparable in the treatment and placebo sessions and was similar to that of a group of age-matched controls. However, retention indices tested on the following day were significantly lower in the placebo compared to the treatment session in which retention indices were restored to the level of the controls. Importantly, reaction and movement time as well as other kinematic measures were the same in the treatment and placebo sessions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that rTMS applied after the acquisition of a motor skill over specific areas involved in this process might enhance skill retention in PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, CUNY Medical School, New York, NY 10031, USA.
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moisello
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, CUNY Medical School, New York, NY 10031, USA.
authors.forename: Daniella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, CUNY Medical School, New York, NY 10031, USA.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fontanesi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, CUNY Medical School, New York, NY 10031, USA.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Center, NYU-Langone School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Milton
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biagioni
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Center, NYU-Langone School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Pawan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Center, NYU-Langone School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Miroslaw
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brys
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics, University of Genova, 16132, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loggini
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics, University of Genova, 16132, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marinelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics, University of Genova, 16132, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Abbruzzese
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, CUNY Medical School, New York, NY 10031, USA; Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Center, NYU-Langone School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Neurosciences, Psychiatry and Anaesthesiological Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, 98125, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quartarone
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Madison, WI 53719, USA.
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tononi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Center, NYU-Langone School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Rocco
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, CUNY Medical School, New York, NY 10031, USA; Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Center, NYU-Langone School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA. Electronic address: lice.mg79@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria Felice
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Ghilardi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
keywords: Adaptation; Consolidation; Motor learning; Motor skills