Abstract:Purpose: In addition to motor cortex involvement, sensory abnormalities have been demonstrated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), including structural and metabolic alterations in the occipital cortex. The aim of this study was to examine occipital excitability changes in ALS. Methods: Twenty-one patients with ALS and 16 healthy subjects were enrolled into the study. Phosphene experience and phosphene threshold were studied to assess occipital excitability. Cognitive function was evaluated in both groups … Show more
“…Following the removal of 273 duplicate reports, 574 articles were screened in the title and abstract level, out of which 559 were excluded. Fifteen full texts were assessed for eligibility, out of which five were excluded because there were no measures of PT ( k = 2; Gamboa Arana et al, 2020; Klöppel et al, 2015) or rMT ( k = 3; Cengiz et al, 2022; Salminen-Vaparanta et al, 2014; Sparing et al, 2005) in healthy populations. Two studies (Afra et al, 1998; Khedr et al, 2006) that met our inclusion criteria had to be excluded because the data were not provided.…”
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is commonly delivered at an intensity defined by the resting motor threshold (rMT), which is thought to represent cortical excitability, even if the TMS target area falls outside of the motor cortex. This approach rests on the assumption that cortical excitability, as measured through the motor cortex, represents a ‘global’ measure of excitability. Another common approach to measure cortical excitability relies on the phosphene threshold (PT), measured through the visual cortex of the brain. However, it remains unclear whether either estimate can serve as a singular measure of global cortical excitability. If PT and rMT indeed reflect global cortical excitability, they should be correlated. To test this, we systematically identified previous studies that measured PT and rMT to calculate an overall correlation between the two estimates. Our results, based on 16 effect sizes from eight studies, indicated that PT and rMT are correlated (ρ = .4), and thus one measure could potentially serve as a global cortical excitability measure. Three exploratory meta-analyses revealed that the strength of the correlation is affected by different methodologies, and that PT intensities are higher than rMT. Evidence for a PT-rMT correlation remained robust across all analyses. Further research is necessary for an in-depth understanding of how cortical excitability is reflected through TMS.
“…Following the removal of 273 duplicate reports, 574 articles were screened in the title and abstract level, out of which 559 were excluded. Fifteen full texts were assessed for eligibility, out of which five were excluded because there were no measures of PT ( k = 2; Gamboa Arana et al, 2020; Klöppel et al, 2015) or rMT ( k = 3; Cengiz et al, 2022; Salminen-Vaparanta et al, 2014; Sparing et al, 2005) in healthy populations. Two studies (Afra et al, 1998; Khedr et al, 2006) that met our inclusion criteria had to be excluded because the data were not provided.…”
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is commonly delivered at an intensity defined by the resting motor threshold (rMT), which is thought to represent cortical excitability, even if the TMS target area falls outside of the motor cortex. This approach rests on the assumption that cortical excitability, as measured through the motor cortex, represents a ‘global’ measure of excitability. Another common approach to measure cortical excitability relies on the phosphene threshold (PT), measured through the visual cortex of the brain. However, it remains unclear whether either estimate can serve as a singular measure of global cortical excitability. If PT and rMT indeed reflect global cortical excitability, they should be correlated. To test this, we systematically identified previous studies that measured PT and rMT to calculate an overall correlation between the two estimates. Our results, based on 16 effect sizes from eight studies, indicated that PT and rMT are correlated (ρ = .4), and thus one measure could potentially serve as a global cortical excitability measure. Three exploratory meta-analyses revealed that the strength of the correlation is affected by different methodologies, and that PT intensities are higher than rMT. Evidence for a PT-rMT correlation remained robust across all analyses. Further research is necessary for an in-depth understanding of how cortical excitability is reflected through TMS.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.