Neuroreport最新文献

{"title":"Activation of ASIC3 in nociceptors induces itch without overt pain in a novel mouse model of acid-evoked itch.","authors":"Yasuhiro Shibata, Ryosuke Chaya, Yuto Yokoi, Natsuko Kumamoto, Takashi Ueda, Zobidah Yousif Elamin Yousif, Yoshitaka Fujihara, Masahito Ikawa, Takahiro Yasui, Shinya Ugawa","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002296","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002296","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Acid-sensing ion channel 3 (ASIC3), a proton-gated cation channel predominantly expressed in primary afferent nociceptors, is an acidosis-related pain generator. Previous experiments suggested that ASIC3 is also involved in the generation of itch. However, mechanistic links between ASIC3 and itch, including the expression of ASIC3 in itch-mediating primary sensory neurons, remain unclear. We examined ASIC3 expression in these sensory neurons and then investigated whether mild acid stimulation could induce ASIC3-dependent itch without overt pain in mice.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Immunohistochemical analyses were performed using ASIC3-FLAG-enhanced green fluorescent protein-FLAG (FEF) expressing mice. Citric acid was applied with a brush to shaved skin of the nape of the neck or cheek in wild-type and ASIC3 knockout (ASIC3 -/- ) mice. Hindlimb scratching and, in the cheek model, forelimb facial wiping were recorded.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>ASIC3-expressing neurons and plexin C1-positive/tachykinin 1-negative itch-mediating neurons essentially belonged to distinct subpopulations in dorsal root and trigeminal ganglia. Application of 0.2 M citric acid to the nape induced hindlimb scratching directed toward the citric acid-applied area in wild-type mice, and this response was significantly attenuated in ASIC3 -/- mice. Application of 0.5 M citric acid to the cheek induced ASIC3-dependent itch behavior (hindlimb scratching), accompanied by minimal or no pain behavior (forelimb wiping).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Given the absence of ASIC3 in typical itch-mediating primary sensory neurons, citric acid-induced ASIC3 activation in nociceptive skin afferents primarily involved in pain likely underlies the observed itch behavior. As 0.5 M citric acid likely represents a weak noxious stimulus, weak activation of these pain-mediating afferents can evoke itch, supporting the intensity theory of itch.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"587-595"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148761880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biological correlates of spontaneous brain activity alterations in diabetic retinopathy: an amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation-based multimodal study.","authors":"Die Hu, Qi-Ran Zhang, Yuan-Zhi He, Yu-Yue Cheng, Zi-Chun Li, Le-Ran Wang, Chen Lin, Chang-Li Wei, Fang-Liang Yu, Xin Huang","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002295","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002295","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>This study aimed to investigate diabetic retinopathy-related alterations in spontaneous brain activity using ALFF and to explore whether these alterations show indirect spatial associations with normative molecular, cellular, and neurochemical brain architectures.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Resting-state functional MRI data were acquired from 46 patients with diabetic retinopathy and 44 healthy controls. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was used to assess regional spontaneous brain activity. ALFF alteration maps were further integrated with cortical gene expression data to perform imaging transcriptomic analysis, functional enrichment, cell-type-specific expression analysis, neurotransmitter map association analysis, and machine learning classification.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Compared with healthy controls, patients with diabetic retinopathy showed increased ALFF in the cerebellum VIII region, left inferior temporal gyrus, right hippocampus, and left pallidum, and decreased ALFF in the bilateral middle occipital gyri and left calcarine cortex. Imaging transcriptomic analysis linked ALFF alterations to gene expression patterns enriched in neural development, synaptic structure, cytoskeletal organization, cell adhesion, and immune-inflammatory pathways. Cell-type analysis implicated astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocyte precursor cells, and oligodendrocytes. Neurotransmitter mapping suggested associations with multiple neurochemical systems. Machine learning models based on ALFF features demonstrated moderate-to-good classification performance, with logistic regression achieving the highest mean area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.854 ± 0.028.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Patients with diabetic retinopathy showed altered spontaneous brain activity in visual and extra-visual regions. Multimodal analyses provided exploratory biological annotation and preliminary discriminative information for these ALFF alterations, but the transcriptomic and neurotransmitter findings should be interpreted as indirect atlas-based associations requiring further validation.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"570-586"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148765341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neuromedin U receptor 2 modulates climbing fiber-Purkinje cell synaptic transmission through presynaptic protein kinase A signaling cascades in mouse cerebellar slices.","authors":"Mei-Rui Li, Ri-Long Piao, Xu-Dong Zhang, Wen-Cai Weng, Chun-Ping Chu, De-Lai Qiu","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002298","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002298","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The central neuromedin U receptor 2 (NMUR2) participates in regulating neuronal activity and synaptic transmission. This study aimed to explore the functional role of NMUR2 in climbing fiber-Purkinje cell synaptic transmission in mouse cerebellar slices.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Climbing fiber-Purkinje cell excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) and miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) were recorded from Purkinje cells using an Axopatch 700B patch-clamp amplifier. Western blot, glutamate sensor fluorescence imaging, and immunohistochemistry were applied to measure phosphorylated protein kinase A (PKA) levels, climbing fiber terminal glutamate release, and NMUR2 expression, respectively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Bath application of the selective NMUR2 agonist CPN-219 reduced the amplitude and area under the curve of climbing fiber-Purkinje cell EPSCs and increased the paired-pulse ratio ( N 2/ N 1). The CPN-219-induced suppression of EPSCs was reversed by an adenylyl cyclase activator and occluded by an AC inhibitor. The CPN-219-mediated inhibitory effect on EPSCs was completely abolished by bath perfusion of the PKA inhibitor, but not by intracellular PKA inhibition. Western blot analysis revealed that CPN-219 decreased phosphorylated PKA levels in cerebellar molecular layer tissue. Furthermore, CPN-219 markedly attenuated Ca 2+ transients and complex spike activity in Purkinje cells, suppressed climbing fiber-evoked glutamate fluorescent signals, and decreased mEPSC frequency, with no significant alteration in mEPSC amplitude. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining showed NMUR2 immunoreactivity distributed throughout the somata and dendritic arbors of Purkinje cells.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These results indicate that NMUR2 activation suppresses climbing fiber-Purkinje cell synaptic transmission in mouse cerebellar slices predominantly via a mechanism consistent with a presynaptic adenylyl cyclase-PKA signaling cascade.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"596-606"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148765484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neuroprotective effects of an oxindole-piperine hybrid in a rat model of ischemic stroke.","authors":"Al-Shaimaa F Ahmed, Taha F S Ali, Momen R Fareed, Aliaa F Anter, Sarah S Abdel Hameed, Mahmoud E El-Daly, Alaa H Shehata","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002293","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002293","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Numerous studies suggest that oxindole-based derivatives exert neuroprotective activity on neurons. However, these studies used in-vitro evaluation methods and were not evaluated in vivo . Thus, this study aimed to test and assess the neuroprotective effect of a synthetic compound (OP1) by Knoevenagel condensation of cinnamaldehyde and oxindole.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, we used a model of global cerebral ischemia to evaluate the neuroprotective effects of OP1. This was achieved by measuring the behavioral outcomes and infarct volume.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results showed that OP1 resulted in a significant improvement in open field, beam walk, and tape removal tests compared with ischemic rats. Also, OP1 reduced the infarct size after induction of ischemia.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>OP1 shows a promising neuroprotective effect against cerebral ischemia.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"553-559"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148621004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Volume changes of the limbic system and their link to age-related memory decline in healthy adults.","authors":"Haoyan Luo, Wenlong Jia, Qikai Wu, Yangyang Li, Lingzhen Li, Dong Cui","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002297","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002297","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Global population aging highlights the need to explore age-related limbic system alterations, which are closely linked to emotion, memory, and cognition. Heterogeneous volume changes of limbic subregions and their memory-related impacts in healthy aging remain poorly understood.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 315 cognitively normal adults aged 20-89 years were divided into four age cohorts. T1-weighted MRI was applied to quantify volumes of core limbic subregions. Memory and general cognition were evaluated via the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Hopkins Verbal Learning (HOP), covering immediate recall, delayed recall, and delayed recognition. Associations between regional brain volumes and memory performance were analyzed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Most regions of the limbic system exhibited a trend of volume reduction across all four age groups. The right anterior basal forebrain atrophied starting from young adulthood, while the fornix, left basal forebrain, and bilateral hypothalamus shrank significantly in late middle-aged and older adults, respectively. Uniquely, the volume of the left septal nucleus exhibits an abnormal increase. MMSE scores declined gradually, with accelerated loss after 65 years. Older adults exhibited lower immediate and delayed recall scores, positively correlated with the volumes of the nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, fornix, and basal forebrain. No correlation existed between left septal nucleus volume and memory.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Healthy aging causes heterogeneous limbic structural changes, which are essential for sustaining immediate and delayed memory. This advances understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying normal cognitive aging.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"560-569"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148764824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Frequency-dependent alterations of degree centrality in patients with poststroke depression: a resting-state functional MRI study.","authors":"Shixin Wu, Sangsang Chen, Hao Chen, Xiulin Huang, Lishan Xu, Yanlan Huang, Qiuhong Lu, Jie Liu, Zhijian Liang","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002289","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002289","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Poststroke depression (PSD) severely impedes functional recovery among stroke survivors. However, the neural mechanisms underlying PSD remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate aberrant intrinsic brain activity in PSD patients using multiband degree centrality analysis.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 84 patients with acute cerebral infarction were enrolled, including 35 patients with PSD and 49 non-PSD patients. All participants underwent resting-state functional MRI. Degree centrality values across the conventional, slow-4, and slow-5 frequency bands were compared between groups. Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationships between regional degree centrality alterations and depressive symptoms.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Relative to the non-PSD group, patients with PSD exhibited consistently decreased degree centrality in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) across all three frequency bands, while reduced degree centrality in the left DLPFC was specifically identified in the slow-4 band. In the slow-4 band, the PSD group showed significantly elevated degree centrality in the left pallidum, left middle temporal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, and corpus callosum, whereas no brain regions displayed increased degree centrality in the slow-5 band. Correlation analyses revealed that slow-4 degree centrality values in the left DLPFC were negatively correlated with Self-rating Depression Scale scores, whereas degree centrality values in the left pallidum were positively correlated with depressive severity.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>PSD patients exhibited distinct frequency-dependent patterns of abnormal intrinsic brain connectivity, with the slow-4 band showing the most prominent functional alterations. These findings provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying PSD and may facilitate the identification of frequency-specific functional biomarkers for PSD.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"505-514"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13418871/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148562661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Event-related potential evidence for memory prioritization modulated by social labels.","authors":"Kimiko Kato, Kazuhito Yoshizaki","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002292","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002292","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>We investigated whether semantic activation induced by social labels modulates memory prioritization during encoding, as indexed by event-related potentials (ERPs). Specifically, we examined semantic processing and attentional allocation during encoding to identify the stage at which memory enhancement arises.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The experiment consisted of a semantic categorization task during encoding followed by a surprise free-recall test. Participants were assigned to one of two task conditions. In task 1, they judged whether a word belonged to the self category or to non-self categories (friend, irrelevant). In task 2, they judged whether a word belonged to the self or friend category.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We analyzed the N400 and P3b components of ERP data recorded during encoding. Greater N400 attenuation was observed in the self condition in task 1 but not in task 2. Parietal P3b amplitude was larger in the self condition than in the friend and the irrelevant conditions. In the surprise free-recall test, recall performance was highest for self items followed by friend items, and lowest for irrelevant items.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Recall performance demonstrated both a self-prioritization effect and a friend advantage. These results indicate that self-prioritization is more strongly associated with attentional allocation during encoding than with task-driven semantic processing.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"547-552"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148562689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multimodal analysis of resting-state functional MRI in acute mild traumatic brain injury patients and its association with clinical cognitive performance.","authors":"Peng Li, Ming Chen, Tiechen Xiao, Wenwen Chen, Xinhua Xu","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002294","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002294","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) was used to measure the differences in voxel-based indicators between patients with acute mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and healthy volunteers, and the correlation between the differences in these multimodal parameters and the cognitive performance of patients was analyzed.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We collected rs-fMRI data from 35 mTBI patients within 7 days postinjury and 35 healthy volunteers. We employed amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), fractional ALFF, regional homogeneity, functional connectivity, and degree centrality to analyze the data and investigate the dysfunctional brain regions in acute mTBI. Neuropsychological assessments, including the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment, and Trail Making Tests A and B, were administered to the 35 mTBI patients. Correlation analysis was performed between the graph theory parameters and the neuropsychological outcomes.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The ALFF in the insula of the mTBI group was significantly lower than that in the control group, and the degree centrality in the angular gyrus was also significantly reduced. Increased functional connectivity was observed between the cuneus and the middle occipital gyrus, whereas functional connectivity in the dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus was significantly decreased.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Correlation analysis between neuropsychological assessment scores and neural network function in the mTBI group suggested that multimodal rs-fMRI analysis may provide insights into dysfunctional brain regions in mTBI, though observed associations did not survive correction for multiple comparisons.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"536-546"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148562648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multiscale neurobiological architecture of functional synchronization abnormalities in primary angle-closure glaucoma: an imaging-transcriptomics study.","authors":"Xian-Sheng Liu, Zi-Liang Zheng, Jie Cao","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002275","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002275","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) induces widespread central nervous system remodeling. However, the molecular, cellular, and neurochemical architectures driving macroscopic functional synchronization abnormalities in PACG remain unexplored.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We employed a multiscale imaging-transcriptomics framework. Resting-state functional MRI was used to evaluate regional homogeneity (ReHo) in 44 PACG patients and 57 healthy controls. Voxel-wise ReHo alterations were spatially linked to whole-brain gene expression profiles from the Allen Human Brain Atlas, canonical cell-type-specific expression data, and multimodal PET neurotransmitter maps.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>PACG patients exhibited decreased ReHo in the primary visual cortex and compensatory increases across widespread subcortical and higher-order associative cortices. These macroscopic ReHo alterations significantly covaried with a specific transcriptional profile characterized by the upregulation of stress response and extracellular matrix remodeling pathways, alongside the downregulation of synaptic transmission. Cellular enrichment analysis revealed that these transcriptomic signatures were highly specifically localized to the neurovascular and glial axis (astrocytes, endothelial cells, and oligodendrocytes) rather than neuronal lineages. Furthermore, the ReHo abnormality map was significantly coupled with the spatial distribution of multiple neurotransmitters, particularly dopamine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and serotonin receptors.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study provides multidimensional evidence that PACG-induced functional synchronization alterations are tightly constrained by underlying transcriptomic gradients, glial-vascular networks, and neurochemical architectures, reinforcing the conceptualization of PACG as a systemic central neurodegenerative disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"524-535"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148562680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Continuous theta burst stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves force steadiness during submaximal contractions without visual feedback.","authors":"Taishi Okegawa, Naotsugu Kaneko, Daiki Yamasaki, Kimitaka Nakazawa","doi":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002290","DOIUrl":"10.1097/WNR.0000000000002290","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Without visual feedback, the central nervous system must rely on the integration of internal models and proprioceptive information. While the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved in motor control and sensorimotor monitoring, whether it causally influences force steadiness and whether any such influence is dependent on corticospinal excitability remains unclear.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study aimed to investigate whether modulating DLPFC activity using theta burst transcranial stimulation (TBS) influences force steadiness during submaximal contractions performed without visual feedback, and whether this depends on corticospinal excitability.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Twenty-eight healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either inhibitory continuous TBS (cTBS) or facilitatory intermittent TBS over the left DLPFC. Participants performed a 35% submaximal isometric wrist flexion task without visual feedback. We assessed the submaximal force and its coefficient of variation. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and maximal voluntary contraction force were also measured at pre, 15 min, and 30 min poststimulation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Following cTBS, the coefficient of variation of submaximal force significantly decreased at 15 min poststimulation ( P  = 0.013), indicating improved force steadiness. This improvement occurred without any significant changes in MEP amplitudes, maximal voluntary contraction force, or the mean level of submaximal force production.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Transient inhibition of the left DLPFC may enhance force steadiness without visual feedback. This enhancement was not accompanied by detectable changes in resting corticospinal excitability. These results suggest that the DLPFC contributes to the qualitative stability of motor output, possibly by optimizing sensorimotor integration and mitigating maladaptive monitoring of internal feedback under limited-feedback situations.</p>","PeriodicalId":19213,"journal":{"name":"Neuroreport","volume":" ","pages":"515-523"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148520691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}