Currà A, Modugno N, Inghilleri M, Manfredi M, Hallett M, Berardelli A
Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche, Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Viale dell Universita 30, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Neurology. 2002 Dec 24;59(12):1851-9. doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000038744.30298.d4.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique that can activate cortical motor areas and the corticospinal tract without causing the subject discomfort. Since TMS was introduced, numerous applications of the technique have been developed for the evaluation of neurologic diseases. Standard TMS applications (central motor conduction time, threshold and amplitude of motor evoked potentials) allow the evaluation of motor conduction in the CNS. Conduction studies provide specific information in neurologic conditions characterized by clinical and subclinical upper motor neuron involvement. In addition, they have proved useful in monitoring motor abnormalities and the recovery of motor function. TMS also gives information on the pathophysiology of the processes underlying the various clinical conditions. More complex TMS applications (paired-pulse stimulation, silent period, ipsilateral silent period, input-output curve, and evaluation of central fatigue) allow investigation into the mechanisms of diseases causing changes in the excitability of cortical motor areas. These techniques are also useful in monitoring the effects of neurotrophic drugs on cortical activity. TMS applications have an important place among the investigative tools to study patients with motor disorders.
经颅磁刺激（TMS）是一种能够激活皮质运动区和皮质脊髓束而不会使受试者感到不适的技术。自TMS被引入以来，该技术已被开发出众多应用用于评估神经系统疾病。标准的TMS应用（中枢运动传导时间、运动诱发电位的阈值和幅度）可用于评估中枢神经系统中的运动传导。传导研究能为以临床和亚临床上运动神经元受累为特征的神经系统疾病提供特定信息。此外，它们已被证明在监测运动异常和运动功能恢复方面很有用。TMS还能提供有关各种临床状况背后过程的病理生理学信息。更复杂的TMS应用（成对脉冲刺激、静息期、同侧静息期、输入-输出曲线以及中枢疲劳评估）有助于研究导致皮质运动区兴奋性改变的疾病机制。这些技术在监测神经营养药物对皮质活动的影响方面也很有用。在研究运动障碍患者的研究工具中，TMS应用占有重要地位。
