Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) inhibits cortical dendrites

One of the leading approaches to non-invasively treat a variety of brain disorders is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). However, despite its clinical prevalence, very little is known about the action of TMS at the cellular level let alone what effect it might have at the subcellular level (e....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2016-03, Vol.5
Main Authors: Murphy, Sean C, Palmer, Lucy M, Nyffeler, Thomas, Müri, René M, Larkum, Matthew E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Brain stimulation
Calcium Signaling
Dendrites - physiology
dendritic integration
Female
GABAB inhibition
GABAergic Neurons - radiation effects
in vivo
Male
Methods
Neural circuitry
Neuroscience
Optical Imaging
Physiological aspects
Pyramidal Cells - radiation effects
Rats, Wistar
Somatosensory Cortex - radiation effects
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
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Summary:One of the leading approaches to non-invasively treat a variety of brain disorders is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). However, despite its clinical prevalence, very little is known about the action of TMS at the cellular level let alone what effect it might have at the subcellular level (e.g. dendrites). Here, we examine the effect of single-pulse TMS on dendritic activity in layer 5 pyramidal neurons of the somatosensory cortex using an optical fiber imaging approach. We find that TMS causes GABAB-mediated inhibition of sensory-evoked dendritic Ca(2+) activity. We conclude that TMS directly activates fibers within the upper cortical layers that leads to the activation of dendrite-targeting inhibitory neurons which in turn suppress dendritic Ca(2+) activity. This result implies a specificity of TMS at the dendritic level that could in principle be exploited for investigating these structures non-invasively.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.13598