Repeated spaced TMS protocols, also termed accelerated TMS protocols, are of increasing therapeutic interest. The long-term potentiation (LTP)-like effects of repeated spaced intermittent theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (iTBS) are presumed to be N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) dependent; however, this has not been tested. We tested whether the LTP-like effects of repeated spaced iTBS are influenced by low-dose D-Cycloserine (100 mg), an NMDA-R partial-agonist. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial in 20 healthy adults from August 2021-Feb 2022. Participants received repeated spaced iTBS, consisting of two iTBS sessions 60 minutes apart, to the primary motor cortex. The peak-to-peak amplitude of the motor evoked potentials (MEP) at 120% resting motor threshold (RMT) was measured after each iTBS. The TMS stimulus-response (TMS-SR; 100-150% RMT) was measured at baseline, +30 min, and +60 min after each iTBS. We found evidence for a significant Drug*iTBS effect in MEP amplitude, revealing that D-Cycloserine enhanced MEP amplitudes relative to the placebo. When examining TMS-SR, pairing iTBS with D-Cycloserine increased the TMS-SR slope relative to placebo after both iTBS tetani, and this was due to an increase in the upper bound of the TMS-SR. This indicates that LTP-like and metaplastic effects of repeated-spaced iTBS involve NMDA-R, as revealed by two measures of corticospinal excitability, and that low-dose D-Cycloserine facilitates the physiological effects of repeated spaced iTBS. However, extension of these findings to clinical populations and therapeutic protocols targeting non-motor regions of cortex requires empirical validation.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05081986.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.