Magnetic Brain Stimulation in the Treatment of Mild Cognitive Impairment

Overview

This is a pilot study to test the efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on cognitive improvement in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The main objective of this study is to investigate the ability of rTMS to produce cognitive improvement in individuals with MCI. A secondary objective is to determine whether individuals with MCI following mild brain trauma respond differently to rTMS treatment compared to individuals with non-trauma related MCI. Participants will undergo both active and sham (placebo) rTMS treatment. Cognitive and psychological assessments will be administered before and after each week of rTMS therapy, for both active and sham conditions. Cognitive testing will include verbal, semantic, logic, visual, conceptual, and memory tasks.

This is an open-label pilot study to test the efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on cognitive improvement in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). 16 patients with trauma-related MCI and 16 patients with non-trauma-related MCI will be recruited. All patients will undergo one week of active rTMS stimulation and one week of sham stimulation, separated by at least one week. Each treatment week will consist of five consecutive daily stimulation sessions. The order of active versus sham treatment sessions will be counterbalanced across subjects within each group (i.e., half of the subjects in each group will receive active stimulation first and half will receive sham first). Cognitive and psychological assessments will be administered before and after each week of rTMS therapy, for both active and sham conditions. Additional participants (n=32; 16 without TBI) will be recruited who are receiving a full course (30 sessions) of active rTMS treatment (without a sham intervention). These participants will complete the same cognitive testing as the sham-crossover group at three time-points: pre-treatment, mid-treatment (after session 16), and post-treatment (after session 30).