Spontaneous eyeblink rates vary greatly between people, from several to a few dozen blinks per minute. Nevertheless, it remains unknown which brain region controls generation of spontaneous eyeblinks. To investigate this issue, the present study examined brain anatomy, which reflects inter-individual variability in eyeblink rate using structural magnetic resonance images with voxel-based morpho...

Phosphenes are elementary light perceptions which can be elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the occipital cortex (Meyer et al., 1991; Marg and Rudiak, 1994). Phosphene threshold, which is the minimum magnetic stimulation intensity capable of eliciting phosphenes has been used as a measure of the excitability of the visual cortex (Afra et al., 1998; Aurora et al., 1998). In...

Recording brain activity using positron emission tomography (PET) during the stimulation of different parts of the brain by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) permits the mapping of neural connections in the living human brain. However, controversy remains regarding the need for micro-metal shielding of the PET scanner during magnetic stimulation. The aim of this study was to test the effe...

Abstract Introduction: Despite advances in acute stroke therapies and rehabilitation strategies, many patients are left with long-term upper limb motor impairment. In a randomized controlled trial, we assessed whether continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) of the contralesional cortex combined regular care therapy delivered within three weeks after onset promoted recovery. addition, investig...

AIMS Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is considered a valid experimental model for multiple sclerosis, a chronic neuroinflammatory condition of the central nervous system. Additionally, some evidence has shown that some microbial products such as the bacterial lipopolysaccharide could lead to the activation of reactive immune cells, triggering neuroinflammation. Several studies h...

OBJECTIVE Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been shown to effectively treat depression, and its potential value in pain management is emphasized by recent studies. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-evoked activity in the prefrontal cortex may be associated with corticolimbic inhibitory circuits capable of decreasing pain perception. The present exploratory pilot stud...

BACKGROUND Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become an important experimental tool for exploring the brain's functional anatomy. As TMS interferes with neural activity, the hypothetical function of the stimulated area can thus be tested. One unresolved methodological issue in TMS experiments is the question of how to adequately calibrate stimulation intensities. The motor threshold (M...

A series of studies have consistently reproduced left neglect-like bias on line length estimation tasks in healthy participants by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC), while no significant changes have been reported when stimulating the left PPC. However, a notable inter-individual variability in the right parietal site where TMS modul...

Interleaved TMS/fMRI is a promising technique to study connectivity between brain areas. Functional connectivity can be assessed by targeting a cortical area-of-interest using TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) and directly monitoring the effects on local and remote BOLD activity by means of fMRI. An important practical challenge is the accurate positioning of the coil inside the MRI scann...

Spinal cord injury may lead to complete or incomplete damage to ascending sensory and/or descending motor pathways and therefore alter neural circuits of the primary motor cortex. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a valuable tool for investigating the function of neural circuitry within primary motor cortex and also for promoting plasticity in these circuits for the ultimate purpose of...