title: Neuromagnetic effects of pico-Tesla stimulation.
abstract: We used a double-blind experimental design to look for an effect of pico-Tesla magnetic stimulation in healthy subjects. Pico-Tesla stimulation is thought to increase the dominant frequency of 2-7 Hz oscillations in the human brain. We used magnetoencephalography to measure resting state brain activity. Each subject had two separate recording sessions consisting of three runs in between which they were given real or sham pT stimulation. We then tried to predict the real and sham stimulation sessions based on changes in the mean peak frequency in the 2-7 Hz band. Our predictions for these individual runs were 8 out of 14 at chance level (p = 0.39). After unblinding, we found no significant effect (p = 0.11) of an increase in the frequency range (2-7 Hz) across the subject group. Finally, we performed a Bayesian model comparison between the effect size predicted from previous clinical studies and a null model. Even though this study had a sensitivity advantage of at least one order of magnitude over previous work, we found the null model to be significantly (2000 times) more likely.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, UK.
authors.forename: Luzia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Troebinger
authors.forename: Photios
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Anninos
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barnes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012146:Rest; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult