Prayushi Sharma

ABSTRACT Extinction of traumatic memory, a primary treatment approach (termed exposure therapy) in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), occurs through relearning and may be subserved at the molecular level by long-term potentiation (LTP) of relevant circuits. In parallel, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is thought to work through LTP-like mechanisms and may provide a novel, safe, and effective treatment for PTSD.

Human pharmaco-rTMS neurophysiology studies aimed at understanding TMS mechanisms suffer from high inter-individual variability, but contributing factors are not well-understood. Caffeine has known effects on brain stimulation induced plasticity, but chronic use effects are less clear. Musicians and athletes experience brain changes consistent with synaptic plasticity through motor skill practice, but how these changes affect rTMS modulatory protocols is not defined.