Effect of spatial attention on human sensorimotor integration studied by transcranial magnetic stimulation.
OBJECTIVE
Recent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies showed that the sensory input can decrease the motor cortex excitability (afferent inhibition). To clarify the effect of attention on sensorimotor integration, we investigated the effect of spatial attention on afferent inhibition.


METHODS
Right median nerve electrical stimulation followed, at variable delays (10-300 ms), by TMS over the left motor cortex was applied to 9 subjects, during 3 conditions; spatial attention to the right and left hand, and control (no attention) tasks.


RESULTS
Inhibition of the motor evoked potential occurred at inter-stimulus interval of 20 and 100 ms, which was more was marked during spatial attention to the right than to the left hand.


CONCLUSIONS
Enhancement of the afferent inhibition induced by spatial attention to the stimulated side is likely to reflect the interaction between attention and sensorimotor integration.


CONCLUSIONS
The spatial attention may modulate the sensorimotor integration studied by afferent inhibition of the MEP.
Kotb
Mamdouh Ali
MA
Human Brain Research Center, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
Mima
Tatsuya
T
Ueki
Yoshino
Y
Begum
Tahamina
T
Khafagi
Amal Tawfik
AT
Fukuyama
Hidenao
H
Nagamine
Takashi
T
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004576:Electromyography; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008475:Median Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation