Electroencephalography (EEG) can directly monitor the temporal progression of cortical changes induced by repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) and facilitate the understanding of cortical and subcortical influences in the genesis of oscillations. In this combined rTMS/EEG study, we aimed to investigate changes in oscillatory activity after high-frequency (?11 Hz) rTMS relative to the number of applied pulses. Twenty intermittent trains of 20 or 60 rTMS pulses were delivered over the human primary motor cortex at rest and tuned to individual mu frequency. The regional and interregional oscillatory neural activity after stimulation were evaluated using event-related power (ERPow) and event-related coherence (ERCoh) transformations. The most prominent changes for ERPow were observed in the theta band (4-7 Hz), as an increase in ERPow up to 20 s following 60 rTMS pulses, whereas ERPow increases were smaller in mu (10-12 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz). ERCoh revealed that rTMS 60 modulated the connectivity in the theta band for up to 20 s. The topography of mu and theta changes were not identical; mu was more focal and theta was more global. Our data suggested the presence of independent cortical theta and mu generators with different reactivity to rTMS but could not rule out possible thalamocortical contributions in generating theta and mu over the motor network. � 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Transcranial magnetic theta burst stimulation (TBS) differs from other high-frequency rTMS protocols because it induces plastic changes up to an hour despite lower stimulus intensity and shorter duration of stimulation. However, the effects of TBS on neuronal oscillations remain unclear. In this study, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate changes of neuronal oscillations after continuous TBS (cTBS), the protocol that emulates long-term depression (LTD) form of synaptic plasticity. We randomly divided 26 healthy humans into two groups receiving either Active or Sham cTBS as control over the left primary motor cortex (M1). Post-cTBS aftereffects were assessed with behavioural measurements at rest using motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and at active state during the execution of a choice reaction time (RT) task in combination with continuous electrophysiological recordings. The cTBS-induced EEG oscillations were assessed using event-related power (ERPow), which reflected regional oscillatory activity of neural assemblies of ? (4-7.5 Hz), low ? (8-9.5 Hz), ? (10-12.5 Hz), low ? (13-19.5 Hz), and high ? (20-30 Hz) brain rhythms. Results revealed 20-min suppression of MEPs and at least 30-min increase of ERPow modulation, suggesting that besides MEPs, EEG has the potential to provide an accurate cortical readout to assess cortical excitability and to investigate the interference of cortical oscillations in the human brain post-cTBS. We also observed a predominant modulation of ? frequency band, supporting the hypothesis that cTBS acts more on cortical level. Theta oscillations were also modulated during rest implying the involvement of independent cortical theta generators over the motor network post cTBS. This work provided more insights into the underlying mechanisms of cTBS, providing a possible link between synchronised neural oscillations and LTD in humans. � 2012 Noh et al.

Altered neural oscillations and their abnormal synchronization are crucial factors in the pathophysiology of several neuropsychiatric disorders. There is increasing evidence that the perturbation with an abnormal increase of spontaneous thalamocortical neural oscillations lead to a phenomenon termed Thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD) which underlies the symptomatology of a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders including Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, tinnitus, major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In addition, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive neurophysiological tool that has been shown to both induce a modulation of neural oscillations and alleviate a wide range of human neuropsychiatric pathologies. However, little is known about the precise electrophysiological mechanisms behind the therapeutic effect of rTMS and its potential to improve abnormal oscillations across diverse neuropsychiatric disorders. Here we show, using combined rTMS and surface electroencephalography (EEG), a short lasting frequency-dependent rTMS after-effect on thalamocortical rhythmic interplay of low-frequency oscillations in healthy humans at rest. In particular, high-frequency rTMS (10. Hz) induces a transient synchronised activity for delta (?) and theta (?) rhythms thus mimicking the pathological TCD-like oscillations. In contrast, rTMS 1 and 5. Hz have the opposite outcome of de-synchronising low-frequency brain rhythms. These results lead to a new neurophysiological insight of basic mechanisms underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders and a probable electrophysiological mechanism underlying the therapeutic effects of rTMS. Thus, we propose the use of rTMS and EEG as a platform to test possible treatments of TCD phenotypes by restoring proper neural oscillations across various neuropsychiatric disorders.

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive tool that is able to modulate the electrical activity of the brain depending upon its protocol of stimulation. Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is a high-frequency TMS protocol that is able to induce prolonged plasticity changes in the brain. The induction of plasticity-like effects by TBS is useful in both experimental and therapeutic settings; however, the underlying neural mechanisms of this modulation remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of continuous TBS (cTBS) on the intrahemispheric and interhemispheric functional connectivity of the resting and active brain. Methods: A total of 26 healthy humans were randomly divided into two groups that received either real cTBS or sham (control) over the left primary motor cortex. Surface electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to quantify the changes of neural oscillations after cTBS at rest and after a choice reaction time test. The cTBS-induced EEG oscillations were computed using spectral analysis of event-related coherence (ERCoh) of theta (4�7.5 Hz), low alpha (8�9.5 Hz), high alpha (10�12.5 Hz), low beta (13�19.5 Hz), and high beta (20�30 Hz) brain rhythms. Results: We observed a global decrease in functional connectivity of the brain in the cTBS group when compared to sham in the low beta brain rhythm at rest and high beta brain rhythm during the active state. In particular, EEG spectral analysis revealed that high-frequency beta, a cortically generated brain rhythm, was the most sensitive band that was modulated by cTBS. Conclusion: Overall, our findings suggest that cTBS, a TMS protocol that mimics the mechanism of long-term depression of synaptic plasticity, modulates motor network oscillations primarily at the cortical level and might interfere with cortical information coding. � Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2015.