Abstract
Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a tool in the neurosciences to study motor functions and nervous disorders, amongst others. Single pulses of TMS applied over the primary motor cortex lead to a so-called cortical silent period in the recording from the corresponding muscle, i.e. a period of ∼ 100 ms with no muscle activity. We here show that in Parkinson’s disease (PD), this cortical silent period in some cases is interrupted by short bursts of EMG activity. We describe in detail these interruptions in two patients with PD. These interruptions may number up to 3 per cortical silent period and show a consistent frequency across trials and hemispheres within a given patient; the two patients described here do differ, however, in the time-delay of the interruptions and hence the induced frequency. For one patient, the frequency of the interruptions proved to be around 13 Hz, the other patient showed a frequency of around 17 Hz. The results corroborate earlier findings of cortical oscillations elicited by pulses of TMS and may be related to abnormal oscillatory activity found in the cortical-subcortical motor system in PD.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Britton TC, Thompson PD, Day BL, Rothwell JC, Findley LJ, Marsden CD (1993) Modulation of postural wrist tremors by magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex in patients with Parkinson’s disease or essential tremor and in normal subjects mimicking tremor. Ann Neurol 33: 473–479
Brown P(2003) Oscillatory nature of human basal ganglia activity: relationship to the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 18: 357–363
Brown P, Williams D(2005) Basal ganglia local field potential activity: character and functional significance in the human. Clin Neurophysiol 116: 2510–2519
Cantello R, Tarletti R, Civardi C(2002) Transcranial magnetic stimulation and Parkinson’s disease. Brain Res Rev 38: 309–327
Fuggetta G, Fiaschi A, Manganotti P(2005) Modulation of cortical oscillatory activities induced by varying single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation intensity over the left primary motor area: a combined EEG and TMS study. Neuroimage 27: 896–908
Llinás R, Paré D(1995) Role of intrinsic neuronal oscillations and network ensembles in the genesis of normal and pathological tremors. In: Findley LJ, Koller WC (eds) Handbook of tremor disorders. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp 7–36
Marsden JF, Werhahn KJ, Ashby P, Rothwell J, Noachtar S, Brown P (2000) Organization of cortical activities related to movement in humans. J Neurosci 20: 2307–2314
McAuley JH(2003) The physiological basis of clinical deficits in Parkinson’s disease. Progr Neurobiol 69: 27–48
Pascual-Leone A, Valls-Sole J, Toro C, Wassermann EM, Hallett M(1994) Resetting of essential tremor and postural tremor in Parkinson’s disease with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Muscle Nerve 7: 800–807
Paus T, Sipila PK, Strafella AP(2001) Synchronization of neuronal activity in the human sensorimotor cortex by transcranial magnetic stimulation: a combined TMS/EEG study. J Neurophysiol 86: 1983–1990
Schürmann M, Nikouline VV, Soljanlahti S, Ollikainen M, Basar E, Ilmoniemi RJ(2001) EEG responses to combined somatosensory and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Clin Neurophysiol 112: 19–24
Timmermann L, Gross J, Dirks M, Volkmann J, Freund H-J, Schnitzler A (2002) The cerebral oscillatory network of parkinsonian resting tremor. Brain 126: 199–212
Van Der Werf YD, Paus T(2006) The neural response to transcranial magnetic stimulation of the human motor cortex. Vol. I, Intracortical and cortico-cortical contributions. Exp Brain Res 175: 231–245
Van Der Werf YD, Strafella AP, Sadikot AF, Paus T(2006) The neural response to transcranial magnetic stimulation of the human motor cortex. Vol II, Thalamocortical contributions. Exp Brain Res 175: 246–255
Wassermann EM, Lisanby SH(2001) Therapeutic application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: a review. Clin Neurophysiol 112: 1367–1377
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag
About this paper
Cite this paper
Van Der Werf, Y.D., Berendse, H.W., van Someren, E.J.W., Stoffers, D., Stam, C.J., Wolters, E.C. (2007). Observations on the cortical silent period in Parkinson’s disease. In: Gerlach, M., Deckert, J., Double, K., Koutsilieri, E. (eds) Neuropsychiatric Disorders An Integrative Approach. Journal of Neural Transmission. Supplementa, vol 72. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-73574-9_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-73574-9_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-211-73573-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-211-73574-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)