Effect of low-cost transcranial magnetic stimulation navigation on hotspot targeting and motor evoked potential variability in the biceps brachii

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Thibault Roumengous ◽  
Alec B. Reutter ◽  
Carrie L. Peterson

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can monitor or modulate brain excitability. However, reliability of TMS outcomes depends on consistent coil placement during stimulation. Neuronavigated TMS systems can address this issue, but their cost limits their use outside of specialist research environments. Objective: The objective was to evaluate the performance of a low-cost navigated TMS approach in improving coil placement consistency and its effect on motor evoked potentials (MEPs) when targeting the biceps brachii at rest and during voluntary contractions. Methods: We implemented a navigated TMS system using a low-cost 3D camera system and open-source software environment programmed using the Unity 3D engine. MEPs were collected from the biceps brachii at rest and during voluntary contractions across 2 sessions in ten non-disabled individuals. Motor hotspots were recorded and targeted via two conditions: navigated and conventional. Results: The low-cost navigated TMS system reduced coil orientation error (pitch: 1.18°±1.2°, yaw: 1.99°±1.9°, roll: 1.18°±2.2° with navigation, versus pitch: 3.7°±5.7°, yaw: 3.11°±3.1°, roll: 3.8°±9.1° with conventional). The improvement in coil orientation had no effect on MEP amplitudes and variability. Conclusions: The low-cost system is a suitable alternative to expensive systems in tracking the motor hotspot between sessions and quantifying the error in coil placement when delivering TMS. Biceps MEP variability reflects physiological variability across a range of voluntary efforts, that can be captured equally well with navigated or conventional approaches of coil locating.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Lockyer ◽  
Anna Nippard ◽  
Kaitlyn Kean ◽  
Nicole Hollohan ◽  
Duane Button ◽  
...  

Background: The present study compared corticospinal excitability to the biceps brachii muscle during arm cycling at a self-selected and a fixed cadence (SSC and FC, respectively). We hypothesized that corticospinal excitability would not be different between the two conditions. Methods: The SSC was initially performed and the cycling cadence was recorded every 5 s for one minute. The average cadence of the SSC cycling trial was then used as a target for the FC of cycling that the participants were instructed to maintain. The motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex were recorded from the biceps brachii during each trial of SSC and FC arm cycling. Results: Corticospinal excitability, as assessed via normalized MEP amplitudes (MEPs were made relative to a maximal compound muscle action potential), was not different between groups. Conclusions: Focusing on maintaining a fixed cadence during arm cycling does not influence corticospinal excitability, as assessed via TMS-evoked MEPs.


1995 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 520-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Campos ◽  
Rafael Barona ◽  
Joaquín Escudero ◽  
José Montalt ◽  
Manuel Escudero

The introduction of transcranial magnetic stimulation has allowed the study of conduction in the proximal portions and central pathways of the cranial nerves. A study is made of cranial nerve XII with transcranial magnetic stimulation at two levels, cortical and cisternal, registering the motor evoked potential by means of surface electrodes in contact with the upper face of the tongue. Motor evoked potentials were constantly observed on cortical stimulation, in a painless, easy, and reproducible way, with mean values of 10.84 ± 1.14 milliseconds (latency) and 7.81 ± 1.14 mV (amplitude). Motor evoked potentials were unconstant and showed reduced amplitues on cisternal stimulation, with mean values of 4.72 ± 0.62 milliseconds and 0.83 ± 1.26 mV. The magnetic stimulation technique allows the study of the entire motor pathway of cranial nerve XII (motor cortex-medulla, motoneuron-muscle). The method is efficient, noninvasive, painless, and easily reproduced, and it comes close to being an ideal clinical conduction study technique for this cranial nerve.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Kallioniemi ◽  
Minna Pitkänen ◽  
Laura Säisänen ◽  
Petro Julkunen

Cortical motor mapping in pre-surgical applications can be performed using motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes evoked with neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation. The MEP latency, which is a more stable parameter than the MEP amplitude, has not so far been utilized in motor mapping. The latency, however, may provide information about the stress in damaged motor pathways, e.g. compression by tumors, which cannot be observed from the MEP amplitudes. Thus, inclusion of this parameter could add valuable information to the presently used technique of MEP amplitude mapping. In this study, the functional cortical representations of first dorsal interosseous (FDI), abductor pollicis brevis (APB) and abductor digiti minimi (ADM) muscles were mapped in both hemispheres of ten healthy righthanded volunteers. The cortical muscle representations were evaluated by the area and centre of gravity (CoG) by using MEP amplitudes and latencies. As expected, the latency and amplitude CoGs were congruent and were located in the centre of the maps but in a few subjects, instead of a single centre, several loci with short latencies were observed. In conclusion, MEP latencies may be useful in distinguishing the cortical representation areas with the most direct pathways from those pathways with prolonged latencies. However, the potential of latency mapping to identify stressed motor tract connections at the subcortical level will need to be verified in future studies with patients.


2002 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 699-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shikako Hayashi ◽  
Yoshiteru Hasegawa ◽  
Tatsuya Kasai

Studies of use-dependent changes in neural activation have recently focused on the primary motor cortex. To detect the excitability changes in the primary motor cortex after practice in human subjects, motor-evoked potentials by transcranial magnetic stimulation during motor imagery after just 10 sessions of simple index finger abduction were examined. The present results indicate that width of the output map and amplitudes of motor-evoked potential became progressively larger until practice ended. These flexible short-term modulations of human primary motor cortex seem important and could lead to structural changes in the intracortical networks as the skill becomes more learned and automatic, i.e., ‘adaptation’ as one of the neural mechanisms related to motor learning.


2003 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 453-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Demoule ◽  
Eric Verin ◽  
Chrystèle Locher ◽  
Jean-Philippe Derenne ◽  
Thomas Similowski

The integrity of the central efferent motor pathways to the diaphragm can be assessed by using transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure the latency of the corresponding motor evoked potentials with surface electrodes. Because transcranial magnetic stimulation does not activate the diaphragm alone, signal contamination is a potential problem. To evaluate this issue, surface diaphragmatic motor-evoked potential latencies were compared with latencies recorded from diaphragm needle in 9 healthy volunteers. Surface latencies of muscles likely to contaminate the diaphragm signals (serratus anterior, pectoralis major, and tranversus abdominis) were also recorded. The latencies in response to nonfocal transcranial stimulation from surface electrodes were not significantly different from the needle ones (17 ± 1.3 vs. 17.2 ± 1.1 ms, respectively) but were significantly different from the latencies of the other muscles. In two cases, signal contamination appeared likely (serratus anterior in 1 case, abdominal muscles in 1 case). It is possible to reliably measure the latency of the diaphragm response to transcranial magnetic stimulation with adequately positioned surface electrodes.


Author(s):  
Evan J. Lockyer ◽  
Anna P. Nippard ◽  
Kaitlyn Kean ◽  
Nicole Hollohan ◽  
Duane C. Button ◽  
...  

Background: The present study compared corticospinal excitability to the biceps brachii muscle during arm cycling at a self-selected and a fixed cadence (SSC and FC, respectively). We hypothesized that corticospinal excitability would not be different between the two conditions. Methods: The SSC was initially performed and the cycling cadence was recorded every 5 seconds for one minute. The average cadence of the SSC cycling trial was then used as a target for FC of cycling that the participants were instructed to maintain. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex were recorded from the biceps brachii during each trial of SSC and FC arm cycling. Results: Corticospinal excitability as assessed via normalized MEP amplitudes (MEPs were made relative to a maximal compound muscle action potential) were not different between groups. Conclusions: Focusing on maintaining a FC cadence during arm cycling does not influence corticospinal excitability as assessed via TMS-evoked MEPs.


Author(s):  
Evan J. Lockyer ◽  
Anna P. Nippard ◽  
Kaitlyn Kean ◽  
Nicole Hollohan ◽  
Duane C. Button ◽  
...  

Background: The present study compared corticospinal excitability to the biceps brachii muscle during arm cycling at a self-selected and a fixed cadence (SSC and FC, respectively). We hypothesized that corticospinal excitability would not be different between the two conditions. Methods: The SSC was initially performed and the cycling cadence was recorded every 5 seconds for one minute. The average cadence of the SSC cycling trial was then used as a target or FC of cycling that the participants were instructed to maintain. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex were recorded from the biceps brachii during each trial of SSC and FC arm cycling. Results: Corticospinal excitability as assessed via normalized MEP amplitudes (MEPs were made relative to a maximal compound muscle action potential) were not different between groups. Conclusions: Focusing on maintaining a FC cadence during arm cycling does not influence corticospinal excitability as assessed via TMS-evoked MEPs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 129 (6) ◽  
pp. 1393-1404
Author(s):  
Joseph F. Welch ◽  
Patrick J. Argento ◽  
Gordon S. Mitchell ◽  
Emily J. Fox

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive technique to assess neural impulse conduction along the cortico-diaphragmatic pathway. The reliability of diaphragm motor-evoked potentials (MEP) induced by TMS is unknown. Notwithstanding large variability in MEP amplitude, we found good-to-excellent reproducibility of all MEP characteristics (latency, duration, amplitude, and area) both within- and between-day in healthy adult men and women. Our findings support the use of TMS and surface EMG to assess diaphragm activation in humans.


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