Neuromagnetic effects of pico-Tesla stimulation

We used a double-blind experimental design to look for an effect of pico-Tesla magnetic stimulation in healthy subjects. Pico-Tesla stimulation is thought to increase the dominant frequency of 2-7 Hz oscillations in the human brain. We used magnetoencephalography to measure resting state brain activ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physiological measurement 2015-09, Vol.36 (9), p.1901-1912
Main Authors: Troebinger, Luzia, Anninos, Photios, Barnes, Gareth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Bayes Theorem
Brain - physiology
Double-Blind Method
Humans
Magnetic Fields
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
magnetic stimulation
Magnetoencephalography
Male
MEG
Middle Aged
pico-Tesla
Rest
theta rhythm
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Young Adult
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Summary:We used a double-blind experimental design to look for an effect of pico-Tesla magnetic stimulation in healthy subjects. Pico-Tesla stimulation is thought to increase the dominant frequency of 2-7 Hz oscillations in the human brain. We used magnetoencephalography to measure resting state brain activity. Each subject had two separate recording sessions consisting of three runs in between which they were given real or sham pT stimulation. We then tried to predict the real and sham stimulation sessions based on changes in the mean peak frequency in the 2-7 Hz band. Our predictions for these individual runs were 8 out of 14 at chance level (p = 0.39). After unblinding, we found no significant effect (p = 0.11) of an increase in the frequency range (2-7 Hz) across the subject group. Finally, we performed a Bayesian model comparison between the effect size predicted from previous clinical studies and a null model. Even though this study had a sensitivity advantage of at least one order of magnitude over previous work, we found the null model to be significantly (2000 times) more likely.
ISSN:0967-3334
1361-6579
DOI:10.1088/0967-3334/36/9/1901