The cognitive impairment of type 2 diabetes patients caused by long-term metabolic disorders has been the current focus of attention. In order to find the related electroencephalogram (EEG) characteristics to the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) of diabetes patients, this study analyses the EEG synchronization with the method of multi-channel synchronization analysis--S estimator based on phase synchronization. The results showed that the S estimator values in each frequency band of diabetes patients with MCI were almost lower than that of control group. Especially, the S estimator values decreased significantly in the delta and alpha band, which indicated the EEG synchronization decrease. The MoCA scores and S value had a significant positive correlation in alpha band.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can influence the stimulated brain regions and other distal brain regions connecting to them. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of low-frequency rTMS over primary motor cortex on brain by analyzing the brain functional connectivity and coordination between brain regions. 10 healthy subjects were recruited. 1 Hz rTMS was used to stimulate primary motor cortex for 20 min. 1 min resting state electroencephalography (EEG) was collected before and after the stimulation respectively. By performing phase synchronization analysis between the EEG electrodes, the brain functional network and its properties were calculated. Signed-rank test was used for statistical analysis. The result demonstrated that the global phase synchronization in alpha frequency band was decreased significantly after low-frequency rTMS (P<0.05). The phase synchronization was down-regulated between motor cortex and ipsilateral frontal/parietal cortex, and also between contralateral parietal cortex and bilateral frontal cortex. The mean degree and global efficiency of brain functional networks in alpha frequency band were significantly decreased (P<0.05), and the mean shortest path length were significantly increased (P<0.05), which suggested the information transmission of the brain networks and its efficiency was reduced after low-frequency rTMS. This study verified the inhibition function of the low-frequency rTMS to brain activities, and demonstrated that low-frequency rTMS stimulation could affect both stimulating brain regions and distal brain regions connected to them. The findings in this study could be of guidance to clinical application of low-frequency rTMS.