Abstract
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was originally developed as a convenient way of delivering an electrical stimulating pulse across the resistive barrier of the skull and scalp into the brain. The currents induced in the brain are brief, and similar in magnitude and time course to those produced by a conventional peripheral nerve stimulator. The advantage is that the stimulation is almost painless and can readily be applied in conscious human subject, allowing us for the first time to directly manipulate brain activity. It turns out that if stimuli are given repetitively, it is possible to induce effects on the brain that outlast the period of stimulation for minutes or even hours and days. It is these effects that may provide a window to probe mechanisms of neural plasticity in the intact human brain.
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Rothwell, J.C. (2007). Probing the Plasticity of the Brain with TMS. In: Wu, J.L., Ito, K., Tobimatsu, S., Nishida, T., Fukuyama, H. (eds) Complex Medical Engineering. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-30962-8_42
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-30962-8_42
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-30961-1
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