Probing short-latency cortical inhibition in the visual cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation: A reliability study

Background

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive method to stimulate localized brain regions. Despite widespread use in motor cortex, TMS is seldom performed in sensory areas due to variable, qualitative metrics.

Objective

Assess the reliability and validity of tracing phosphenes, and to investigate the stimulation parameters necessary to elicit decreased visual cortex excitability with paired-pulse TMS at short inter-stimulus intervals.

Methods

Across two sessions, single and paired-pulse recruitment curves were derived by having participants outline elicited phosphenes and calculating resulting average phosphene sizes.

Results

Phosphene size scaled with stimulus intensity, similar to motor cortex. Paired-pulse recruitment curves demonstrated inhibition at lower conditioning stimulus intensities than observed in motor cortex. Reliability was high across sessions.

Conclusions

TMS-induced phosphenes are a valid and reliable tool for measuring cortical excitability and inhibition in early visual areas. Our results also provide appropriate stimulation parameters for measuring short-latency intracortical inhibition in visual cortex.