Double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation over the frontal eye field facilitates triggering of memory-guided saccades

The study investigated the influence of double‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) on memory‐guided saccade triggering. Double pulses with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 35, 50, 65 or 80 ms were applied over the right frontal eye field (FEF) and as control over the occipital cortex. A...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European journal of neuroscience 2001-08, Vol.14 (3), p.571-575
Main Authors: Wipfli, Marius, Felblinger, Jacques, Mosimann, Urs P., Hess, Christian W., Schlaepfer, Thomas E., Müri, René M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Electromagnetic Fields
Electrooculography
FEF
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Humans
Male
Memory - physiology
Occipital Lobe - physiology
saccades
Saccades - physiology
TMS
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Fields - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The study investigated the influence of double‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) on memory‐guided saccade triggering. Double pulses with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 35, 50, 65 or 80 ms were applied over the right frontal eye field (FEF) and as control over the occipital cortex. A significant dTMS effect was found exclusively for contralateral saccades; latency of memory‐guided saccades was reduced after FEF stimulation with an ISI of 50 ms compared to latency without stimulation. This effect proved to be specific for the ISI of 50 ms over the FEF because control stimulation with the same ISI over the occipital cortex had no significant effect on latency of memory‐guided saccades. The results of our study showed that, by using an appropriate ISI, dTMS is able to facilitate contralateral saccade triggering by stimulating the FEF. This suggests that TMS interferes specifically with saccade triggering mechanisms, probably by acting on presaccadic neurons of the FEF.
ISSN:0953-816X
1460-9568
DOI:10.1046/j.0953-816x.2001.01671.x