Correlation between Motor Cortex Excitability Changes and Cognitive Impairment in Vascular Depression: Pathophysiological Insights from a Longitudinal TMS Study

Table 4

Comparison of clinical and neuropsychological features of the three groups between baseline () and follow-up (); differences are computed as .

(a)

	Wilcoxon matched-pairs test
	VD		VCI-ND		Controls
	Left hemisphere
rMT (%)	2.67	0.0076	2.66	0.0076	0.19	0.842
CSP (ms)	0.28	0.776	0.56	0.575	2.92	0.0035
Right hemisphere
rMT (%)	2.10	0.0353	2.49	0.0125	0.90	0.367
CSP (ms)	1.41	0.158	0.82	0.407	2.86	0.0042

(b)

	VD		VCI-ND		Controls		⁢Kruskal-Wallis ⁢ANOVA
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	(2,40)
Left hemisphere
rMT (%)	−5.27	6.53	−5.70	3.83	0.53	6.86	10.11	0.0064
CSP (ms)	1.10	25.92	3.20	24.26	32.61	27.73	6.62	0.0365
MEP latency (ms)	0.32	1.32	−0.09	0.54	0.41	1.48	1.77	0.412
CMCT (ms)	0.12	1.42	0.32	0.61	0.63	0.84	1.20	0.549
CMCT-F (ms)	−0.30	1.03	0.27	0.67	0.67	1.10	1.56	0.458
A ratio	0.03	0.19	−0.07	0.20	−0.05	0.07	3.84	0.146
F amplitude (μV)	0.02	0.08	−0.04	0.07	−0.03	0.06	4.13	0.127
Right hemisphere
rMT (%)	−3.93	5.83	−3.10	2.92	1.07	6.11	7.62	0.0221
CSP (ms)	15.83	41.03	4.20	15.18	31.21	33.85	3.53	0.171
MEP latency (ms)	0.11	0.81	0.15	1.17	−0.13	1.45	0.74	0.689
CMCT (ms)	−0.17	1.31	−0.05	0.79	−0.01	0.99	0.29	0.862
CMCT-F (ms)	−0.19	1.14	−0.46	2.20	0.01	1.05	0.41	0.813
A ratio	−0.02	0.27	−0.05	0.10	0.02	0.12	2.86	0.239
F amplitude (μV)	0.01	0.07	−0.10	0.14	0.01	0.04	6.56	0.0375

(c)

Post hoc analysis	VD-VCI		VD-controls		VCI-controls
	rMT (left)	0.75	1.000	2.41	0.0474	2.90	0.0108
CSP (left)	0.09	1.000	2.34	0.0574	1.99	0.137
rMT (right)	0.37	1.000	2.15	0.0934	2.30	0.064
F amplitude (right)	2.30	0.062	0.02	1.000	2.28	0.066

VD, patients with vascular depression; VCI, patients with vascular cognitive impairment-no dementia; SD, standard deviation; rMT, resting motor threshold; CSP, cortical silent period; ISI, interstimulus interval; numbers in bold and italic font indicate statistically significant value.