Probing short-latency cortical inhibition in the visual cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation: A reliability study

Abstract

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive method to stimulate localized brain regions. Despite widespread use in motor cortex, TMS is seldom performed in sensory areas due to variable, qualitative metrics.

Objective: Assess the reliability and validity of tracing phosphenes, and to investigate the stimulation parameters necessary to elicit decreased visual cortex excitability with paired-pulse TMS at short inter-stimulus intervals.

Methods: Across two sessions, single and paired-pulse recruitment curves were derived by having participants outline elicited phosphenes and calculating resulting average phosphene sizes.

Results: Phosphene size scaled with stimulus intensity, similar to motor cortex. Paired-pulse recruitment curves demonstrated inhibition at lower conditioning stimulus intensities than observed in motor cortex. Reliability was high across sessions.

Conclusions: TMS-induced phosphenes are a valid and reliable tool for measuring cortical excitability and inhibition in early visual areas. Our results also provide appropriate stimulation parameters for measuring short-latency intracortical inhibition in visual cortex.

Keywords: Gamma aminobutyric acid; Paired-pulse; Phosphenes; Recruitment curve; Short-interval cortical inhibition; Transcranial magnetic stimulation.