PSYC 4600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Visual Cortex, Neuroplasticity

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 4600
• Professor: Maria Giammarco

Document Summary

Natural occurring lesions have played a large role in learning about the functional anatomy of the brain: they are not common enough to study, or localized to one brain area. Tms induces localized, non-invasive, temporary and reversible lesions in the brain. Electrical signals of the brain are projected outwards: tms uses electrical signals outside the brain to interact with internal brain activity. Electrical coil with a magnetic field can locally interrupt the signals of the brain: electrical coil creates an electrical current -> produces a magnetic field -> induced current in neuron. Unsure of long term effects of tms exposure. Not u(cid:374)til 1(cid:1013)(cid:1012)5 : non-invasive, sufficient field strength, correct stimulation frequencies, appropriately high spatial resolution. Two coil forms: originally used circular coil, figure-of-eight coil was then developed, has better spatial resolution. Focal regions: ~ 1. 3 cm wide x 1. 5 cm deep, fairly precise localization. Duration: < 1 ms, longer with repetitive tms. Depth of stimulation into cortex: ~ 2 cm.