Some positive effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation.
It is hoped that this survey conveys a sense of the many positive uses of focal and nonfocal MC stimulation already manifest within a decade of its introduction. As with other techniques of investigating brain function, MC stimulation has its relative advantages and disadvantages. The precision of defining the site of MC effects currently is inferior to that achieved with PET scanning, but the precision of timing of effects is superior, being on the order of milliseconds. Perhaps the special value of MC stimulation is in moving closer to specifying cause-effect relationships, through interference or facilitatory effects, than when techniques yielding more circumstantial evidence are used. However, it is the testing and cross-validation of the conclusions from the different modes of neuroscientific inquiry that we look to in synthesizing explanations of brain function.
Amassian
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Department of Physiology, State University of New York Health Science Center 11203, USA.
Cracco
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Maccabee
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Cracco
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Henry
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D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D017950:Ganglia, Sensory / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation