Neural effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation at the single-cell level

Maria C. Romero (), Marco Davare (), Marcelo Armendariz and Peter Janssen
Additional contact information
Maria C. Romero: Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Marco Davare: Onderzoeksgroep Bewegingscontrole & Neuroplasticiteit, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Marcelo Armendariz: Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Peter Janssen: Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can non-invasively modulate neural activity in humans. Despite three decades of research, the spatial extent of the cortical area activated by TMS is still controversial. Moreover, how TMS interacts with task-related activity during motor behavior is unknown. Here, we applied single-pulse TMS over macaque parietal cortex while recording single-unit activity at various distances from the center of stimulation during grasping. The spatial extent of TMS-induced activation is remarkably restricted, affecting the spiking activity of single neurons in an area of cortex measuring less than 2 mm in diameter. In task-related neurons, TMS evokes a transient excitation followed by reduced activity, paralleled by a significantly longer grasping time. Furthermore, TMS-induced activity and task-related activity do not summate in single neurons. These results furnish crucial experimental evidence for the neural effects of TMS at the single-cell level and uncover the neural underpinnings of behavioral effects of TMS.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10638-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10638-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10638-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().