Phosphene-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation of occipital but not parietal cortex suppresses stimulus visibility

Evelina Tapia, Chiara Mazzi, Silvia Savazzi, Diane M. Beck

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over the occipital lobe approximately 100 ms after the onset of a stimulus decreases its visibility if it appears in the location of the phosphene. Because phosphenes can also be elicited by stimulation of the parietal regions, we asked if the same procedure that is used to reduce visibility of stimuli with occipital TMS will lead to decreased stimulus visibility when TMS is applied to parietal regions. TMS was randomly applied at 0-130 ms after the onset of the stimulus in steps of 10 ms in occipital and parietal regions. Participants responded to the orientation of the line stimulus and rated its visibility. We replicate previous reports of phosphenes from both occipital and parietal TMS. As previously reported, we also observed visual suppression around the classical 100 ms window both in the objective line orientation and subjective visibility responses with occipital TMS. Parietal stimulation, on the other hand, did not consistently reduce stimulus visibility in any time window.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1989-1997
Number of pages9
JournalExperimental Brain Research
Volume232
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2014

Keywords

  • Occipital cortex
  • Parietal cortex
  • Phosphenes
  • Scotomas
  • TMS
  • TMS masking
  • Visual masking

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Phosphene-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation of occipital but not parietal cortex suppresses stimulus visibility'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this