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Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) inhibits cortical dendrites

One of the leading approaches to non-invasively treat a variety of brain disorders is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). However, despite its clinical prevalence, very little is known about the action of TMS at the cellular level let alone what effect it might have at the subcellular level (e....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Murphy, Sean C, Palmer, Lucy M, Nyffeler, Thomas, Müri, René M, Larkum, Matthew E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4811769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26988796
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13598
Descripción
Sumario:One of the leading approaches to non-invasively treat a variety of brain disorders is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). However, despite its clinical prevalence, very little is known about the action of TMS at the cellular level let alone what effect it might have at the subcellular level (e.g. dendrites). Here, we examine the effect of single-pulse TMS on dendritic activity in layer 5 pyramidal neurons of the somatosensory cortex using an optical fiber imaging approach. We find that TMS causes GABA(B)-mediated inhibition of sensory-evoked dendritic Ca(2+) activity. We conclude that TMS directly activates fibers within the upper cortical layers that leads to the activation of dendrite-targeting inhibitory neurons which in turn suppress dendritic Ca(2+) activity. This result implies a specificity of TMS at the dendritic level that could in principle be exploited for investigating these structures non-invasively. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13598.001