Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 280, Issue 3, 25 February 2000, Pages 167-170
Neuroscience Letters

Modulation of the neuronal circuitry subserving working memory in healthy human subjects by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(00)00798-9Get rights and content

Abstract

We studied the effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as revealed by positron emission tomography (PET) while subjects performed a 2-back verbal working memory (WM) task. rTMS to the right or left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), but not to the midline frontal cortex, significantly worsened performance in the WM task while inducing significant reductions in rCBF at the stimulation site and in distant brain regions. These results for the first time demonstrate the ability of rTMS to produce temporary functional lesions in elements of a neuronal network thus changing its distributed activations and resulting in behavioral consequences.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Th. Schmitz and H. Herzog for technical advice and helpful comments on the PET scanning procedure. We appreciate the help of S. Schaden, E. Theelen, M.-L. Grosse-Ruyken and B. Elghahwagi.

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