Abstract:Objective To investigate the effectiveness of non-invasive brain stimulation in improving the executive functions of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) or transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in treating PD patients with outcome indicators including executive functions were retrieved from 5 databases (Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, and Wanfang data). The literatures were screened according to the predetermined criteria and the data were extracted. The effectiveness of 3 non-invasive brain stimulation interventions on executive dysfunction of PD patients was compared using network meta-analysis (NMA). The results were summarized by standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% Bayesian credibility interval (CrI), and the effectiveness of each intervention was ranked by surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA). Results A total of 20 RCTs (809 PD patients) were included. Compared with the control group, TMS significantly improved the executive functions of PD patients (SMD=0.16, 95% CrI 0.01-0.32). The probability ranking results of the effectiveness of the interventions on the executive functions of PD patients were TMS>tACS>tDCS> control (SUCRA=0.72, 0.61, 0.41, 0.25, respectively). TMS was the most likely intervention with the best performance. Conclusion TMS has a direct improvement effect on executive functions of PD patients. Limited by the number and quality of the included studies, the above conclusion need to be further verified by high-quality studies.