Paired pulse TMS over the right posterior parietal cortex modulates visuospatial perception.
OBJECTIVE
We previously observed a relative contralateral neglect by right parietal single-pulse TMS given 150 ms after visual stimulus presentation. Here we investigated the effects of parietal paired TMS in normal subjects performing a visuospatial task.


METHODS
Thirteen right-handed healthy subjects underwent a line-length judgement task during single-pulse and paired (1, 3, 5, 10 ms ISIs) TMS, delivered on the right parietal cortex 150 ms after visual stimulus.


RESULTS
Single pulse TMS over the right parietal cortex induced a significant rightward bias compared to the baseline condition. At 1 and 3 ms ISIs, paired-pulse TMS did not show any effect in comparison with single pulse TMS. More importantly, 5 ms ISI was able to restore baseline levels, thus inducing a significant improvement of the performance compared to single-pulse TMS and 1-3 ms ISIs.


CONCLUSIONS
Paired TMS seems able to modulate activity of the right posterior parietal cortex in healthy subjects performing a cognitive visuospatial task.
Fierro
Brigida
B
Dipartimento di Neurologia, Oftalmologia, Otorinolaringoiatria e Psichiatria, Università di Palermo, Via G. La Loggia, 90129, Palermo, Italy.
Brighina
Filippo
F
Giglia
Giuseppe
G
Palermo
Antonio
A
Francolini
Margherita
M
Scalia
Simona
S
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation