Helmich R C, Snijders A H, Verkes R J, Bloem B R
Universitair Medisch Centrum St Radboud, Postbus 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen.
Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2004 Feb 28;148(9):410-5.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive approach to briefly stimulate or inhibit cortical brain areas. A novel approach entails the delivery of repetitive TMS pulses (rTMS) at a fixed frequency. In rTMS cortical activity is altered beyond the period of actual stimulation. The changes occur locally as well as at a distance in functionally connected brain areas. These features render rTMS a suitable tool to study normal brain functions and the pathophysiology of brain diseases. Furthermore, it is expected that rTMS could be used as a novel therapy for neurological or psychiatric diseases characterised by abnormal cortical activation. This possibility has been studied mostly in patients suffering from depression, where rTMS has been used to restore normal activity in the hypoactive prefrontal cortex. Despite statistically significant therapeutic effects in small sized trials, the clinical implications are still limited.
经颅磁刺激（TMS）是一种用于短暂刺激或抑制大脑皮质区域的非侵入性方法。一种新方法是在固定频率下传递重复经颅磁刺激脉冲（rTMS）。在rTMS中，皮质活动在实际刺激期之外会发生改变。这些变化既发生在局部，也发生在功能连接的脑区的远距离部位。这些特性使rTMS成为研究正常脑功能和脑部疾病病理生理学的合适工具。此外，预计rTMS可作为一种新型疗法，用于治疗以皮质激活异常为特征的神经或精神疾病。这种可能性主要在抑郁症患者中进行了研究，在这些患者中，rTMS已被用于恢复低活性前额叶皮质的正常活动。尽管在小规模试验中有统计学上显著的治疗效果，但其临床意义仍然有限。
