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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive brain modulation and rehabilitation technique used in patients with neuropsychiatric diseases. rTMS can structurally remodel or functionally induce activities of specific cortical regions and has developed to an important therapeutic method in such patients. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides brain data that can be used as an explanation tool for the neural mechanisms underlying rTMS effects; brain alterations related to different functions or structures may be reflected in changes in the interaction and influence of brain connections within intrinsic specific networks. In this review, we discuss the technical details of rTMS and the biological interpretation of brain networks identified with MRI analyses, comprehensively summarize the neurobiological effects in rTMS-modulated individuals, and elaborate on changes in the brain network in patients with various neuropsychiatric diseases receiving rehabilitation treatment with rTMS. We conclude that brain connectivity network analysis based on MRI can reflect alterations in functional and structural connectivity networks comprising adjacent and separated brain regions related to stimulation sites, thus reflecting the occurrence of intrinsic functional integration and neuroplasticity. Therefore, MRI is a valuable tool for understanding the neural mechanisms of rTMS and practically tailoring treatment plans for patients with neuropsychiatric diseases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep-disordered breathing disease that often leads to many comorbidities (e.g., cognitive dysfunction), which adversely affect the quality of life for patients with OSA. Thus far, the underlying mechanisms of this dysfunction remain unclear. Many studies have focused on OSA-related characteristics, including intermittent hypoxemia and sleep fragmentation. There is increasing emphasis on neuroimaging studies to explore underlying relationships between neuropathological changes and cognitive dysfunction. This article reviews recent research progress concerning cognitive dysfunction associated with OSA to reveal potential mechanisms that contribute to this dysfunction., Competing Interests: All the authors listed have read through the manuscript, approved for publication and declared no conflict of interest., (© 2021 Chinese Medical Association. Pediatric Investigation published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Futang Research Center of Pediatric Development.)

Most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders take decades to develop and their early detection is challenged by confounding non-pathological ageing processes. For all neurodegenerative conditions, we continue to lack longitudinal gene expression data covering their large temporal evolution, which hinders the understanding of the underlying dynamic molecular mechanisms. Here, we overcome this key limitation by introducing a novel gene expression contrastive trajectory inference (GE-cTI) method that reveals enriched temporal patterns in a diseased population. Evaluated on 1969 subjects in the spectrum of late-onset Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases (from ROSMAP, HBTRC and ADNI datasets), this unsupervised machine learning algorithm strongly predicts neuropathological severity (e.g. Braak, amyloid and Vonsattel stages). Furthermore, when applied to in vivo blood samples at baseline (ADNI), it significantly predicts clinical deterioration and conversion to advanced disease stages, supporting the identification of a minimally invasive (blood-based) tool for early clinical screening. This technique also allows the discovery of genes and molecular pathways, in both peripheral and brain tissues, that are highly predictive of disease evolution. Eighty-five to ninety per cent of the most predictive molecular pathways identified in the brain are also top predictors in the blood. These pathways support the importance of studying the peripheral-brain axis, providing further evidence for a key role of vascular structure/functioning and immune system response. The GE-cTI is a promising tool for revealing complex neuropathological mechanisms, with direct implications for implementing personalized dynamic treatments in neurology., (© The Author(s) (2020). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)