Intrinsic functional architecture predicts remote motor cortical excitability changes induced by intermittent theta-burst stimulation

First published online September 26, 2026. Individual brain-network organization helped predict how remote motor-cortex excitability changed after iTBS, but the healthy-volunteer study found no overall group-level stimulation effect and did not test clinical improvement.

Chen Y, Zheng Z, Liu F, Cai H, Chu T, Luo S, Li Z, Zhu C.
iScience · Publication date: 2026-09-26
Added to site: 2026-10-17
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117633

First published online September 26, 2026; collected in the October 16, 2026 issue feed. Historical addition.

Modalities

iTBS, fMRI, TMS

Clinical focus

Motor cortical excitability, Functional connectivity, Personalized stimulation

Population

Healthy right-handed young adults

Sample

24 participants; 15 male and 9 female, mean age 24.29 years

Intervention / method

Participants received counterbalanced iTBS sessions over left M1, dorsal premotor cortex and caudal inferior parietal lobule, separated by 2 to 5 days. Right-M1 excitability was measured at baseline, immediately after stimulation and 30 minutes later, then modeled against individual resting-state functional architecture.

Comparator

Within-participant comparison across three stimulation targets and post-stimulation timepoints; no sham condition

Clinician summary

Group-level area-under-the-curve effects were not significant for M1, dorsal premotor or inferior parietal stimulation. Individual resting-state connectivity and network topology predicted portions of the immediate remote M1 response, with exploratory classifier AUC values above 0.89 after covariate inclusion. The models were not independently validated.

How to interpret the findings

Small healthy-young-adult sample, no sham, no independent model validation, iTBS-only protocol, and no patient, behavioral or functional outcome. Exploratory classification performance should not be treated as clinical prediction accuracy.

Equipment and disclosures

Magstim Rapid2 with D70 Air Film figure-of-eight coil; Brainsight neuronavigation and EMG hardware. This is source-reported study equipment, with no BrainMaster attribution.

Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China grants 82071999 and 61431002. The authors declared no competing interests and reported using generative AI to improve readability and language, followed by author review. No indexed correction, retraction or concern notice appeared in the retained PubMed or Crossref records; this is a bounded check. AI-assisted review.

Related evidence

Compare findings from the same clinical area, including mixed results.

• Frontal midline theta reduction during attentional reconfiguration links local cortical dynamics to network-level connectivity changes · Positive with limitations
• Brain state-contingent stimulation to probe task-dependent functional networks. · Positive with limitations
• Neuromodulation effects of HF-rTMS and rPMS on stroke patients: an fNIRS study. · Positive with limitations
• Temporal-Targeted Accelerated 40 Hz tACS Enhances Cognitive Function and Network Integration in Alzheimer's Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial. · Positive with limitations
• Cerebellar Theta-Burst Stimulation Induces Distinct Functional Connectivity Patterns in Post-Stroke Aphasia: A Randomized Controlled Trial. · Mixed
• Machine learning-based source-level EEG functional network biomarkers of antidepressant treatment response in major depressive disorder. · Positive with limitations
• Infra-low-frequency neurofeedback alters EEG network efficiency: exploratory evidence from healthy volunteers. · Positive with limitations