The influence of sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on commonly collected TMS metrics in patients with chronic stroke

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used in research to promote recovery for patients with chronic stroke by directly influencing neuronal activity. In research, sham-rTMS is often used to control for a placebo effect by mimicking auditory and somatosensory perception without actually stimulating the brain. Still, the influence of sham-rTMS on neuronal activity measured with single-pulse TMS has been given minimal attention. Therefore, our objective was to study the effect of sham-rTMS on TMS metrics and within-session reliability of these metrics from baseline to post sham-rTMS (absolute difference and intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]).

Source: BRAIN STIMULATION: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research in Neuromodulation - June 18, 2017 Category: Neurology Authors: David A. Cunningham, Jacqueline Cavendish, Vishwanath Sankarasubramanian, Kelsey A. Potter-Baker, Andre G. Machado, Ela B. Plow Source Type: research