Transcranial magnetic stimulation reveals asymmetrical efficacy of intracortical circuits in primary motor cortex. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The efficacy of inhibitory and excitatory intracortical circuits acting on the representation of an intrinsic hand muscle in the primary motor cortex of both hemispheres was measured with paired transcranial magnetic stimuli in right-handed subjects. Both intracortical inhibition (measured with an interstimulus interval of 3 ms) and intracortical facilitation (measured with an interstimulus interval of 16 ms) developed more rapidly with increasing conditioning stimulus intensity in the dominant than the non-dominant hand. We conclude that the intracortical circuits in the primary motor cortex are more potent in the dominant than the non-dominant hemisphere, and hypothesize that this difference is a factor in the asymmetrical dexterity associated with hand preference.

publication date

  • November 8, 2003

Research

keywords

  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Functional Laterality
  • Motor Cortex
  • Nerve Net

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 1542285179

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1007/s00221-003-1696-x

PubMed ID

  • 15064880

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 155

issue

  • 1