Studies of human motor physiology with transcranial magnetic stimulation

✍ Scribed by Robert Chen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 126 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-639X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-4598(2000)999:9<::aid-mus6>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a safe, noninvasive, and painless way to stimulate the human motor cortex in behaving human subjects. When it is applied as a single-pulse, measurements such as central conduction time, motor threshold, silent-period duration, recruitment curve, and mapping of muscle representation can be determined. Paired-pulse TMS is a useful way to examine cortical excitability. Single and paired-pulse TMS have been applied to study plasticity following amputation and cortical excitability in patients with dystonia. Another form of TMS is repetitive TMS (rTMS), with stimuli delivered repeatedly to a single scalp site. High-frequency rTMS can be used to transiently inactivate different cortical areas to study their functions. rTMS can also modulate cortical excitability. At stimulus frequencies higher than 5 Hz, rTMS increases cortical excitability, and stimulation around 1 Hz reduces cortical excitability. Modulation of cortical excitability by rTMS has therapeutic potential in psychiatric and neurological disorders.