Title:The Multifactorial Role of Pre-supplementary Motor Area Stimulation in
the Freezing of Gait: An Alternative Strategy to the Classical Drug-Target
Approach
Volume: 22
Issue: 5
Author(s): Mevhibe Saricaoglu, Lutfu Hanoglu, Guven Toprak, Nesrin Helvaci Yilmaz and Burak Yulug*
Affiliation:
- Department of Neurology,
School of Medicine, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Alanya, Antalya, Turkey
Keywords:
Freezing of gait, parkinson’s disease, presupplementary area, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, motor symptoms, cognitive symptoms, behavioural symptoms.
Abstract:
Introduction: The pre-supplementary motor area (Pre-SMA) plays a pivotal role in the
control of voluntary motor control and freezing of gait (FOG) pathophysiological mechanism.
Here, we aimed to modulate if the pre-SMA would have beneficial effects on motor and behavioural
outcomes in freezing of gait. To test this hypothesis, we examined the left pre-SMA stimulating
effect of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) on motor, cognitive and behavioural
parameters in Parkinson’s patients with FOG.
Methods: The study included 20 Parkinson’s patients with FOG (3 females, 17 males) who received
the left Pre-SMA rTMS procedure. The clinical assessments were performed on all patients
at the baseline and the patients were re-evaluated under the same clinical conditions one week after
the end of the sessions.
Results & Discussion: We found significant improvements in motor, cognitive and behavioural
symptoms (p<0.05). The main finding of our study is that Pre-SMA is an attractive stimulation
area leading to critical improvement of symptoms of Parkinson’s patients with FOG.
Conclusion: The high-frequency rTMS stimulation over the left preSMA has a restorative effect
on the motor, cognitive and behavioural symptoms of Parkinson’s patients with FOG.