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Updated: Jan 14, 2026
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to the Unilateral Hemisphere of Rat Brain
Published on: October 22, 2016
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for nicotine addiction: A regional homogeneity study based on
Zhiqiang Li1, Xuan Sha2, Qiaoli Zhang1
1The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310053, China.
Background:
Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on treating nicotine addiction. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the effects of repetitive TMS (rTMS) on nicotine addiction using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI).
Materials And Methods:
In this study, adult male participants with nicotine addiction were prospectively recruited, and assigned to either the rTMS group (n = 19) or Sham group (n = 12). Two groups underwent ten sessions of either real or sham rTMS treatment over a two-week period. Clinical assessments related to smoking craving and rs-fMRI scans were conducted before and after treatment. The regional homogeneity (ReHo) was utilized to explore differences in local neural synchronization between the rTMS and Sham groups.
Results:
After treatment, the smoking cravings were significantly reduced in two groups. Significant group-by-time interaction effects were observed in the left orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and right angular gyrus (AG). Post-hoc analyses revealed that, compared with pre-treatment, the rTMS group exhibited increased ReHo values after treatment in these areas, while the Sham group exhibited decreased values. Furthermore, within the rTMS group, post-treatment ReHo values in the left MFG were negatively correlated with post-treatment short Tobacco Craving Questionnaire (sTCQ)-Impulse scores. Similarly, the changes in ReHo values of the left MFG from pre- to post-treatment within the rTMS group were negatively correlated with changes in sTCQ-Impulse scores.
Conclusion:
Our findings demonstrated that rTMS treatment may improve nicotine-related dependence by modulating local neural synchronization in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and AG. Furthermore, ReHo values in the left MFG may serve as a promising neuroimaging biomarker for predicting nicotine addiction cessation.
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