Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Neurons in Behaving Primates

经颅磁刺激(TMS)是一种非侵入性的脑刺激方法。它 对我们对正常大脑功能的理解做出了巨大贡献，并在治疗方面显示出希望 治疗精神和神经疾病。然而，TMS对神经元活动的影响到底是什么， 仍然不为人知。我们将在记录单个神经元的同时应用单脉冲TMS 表现出非人灵长类的行为。我们的TMS方法将与人类使用的方法相对应，并将 易于被任何灵长类神经生理学实验室采用。一组研究人员将设计 定制TMS线圈，将刺激焦点定向到大脑皮层的精确位置，创新 电子学允许在TMS脉冲后1毫秒内进行神经元记录，并控制视觉- 眼球运动任务，以允许系统变化的行为，从而神经元的状态。我们将录制 来自刺激部位和远处的单个神经元和场电位 单通道连接的站点。我们工作的最终结果将是发现TMS如何影响 大脑在单个神经元和简单电路的水平上。其影响将包括改进， 用于人类基础研究和治疗应用的生理引导TMS方案。

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive method for stimulating the human brain. It has contributed greatly to our understanding of normal brain function and shows promise in therapies for psychiatric and neurological disorders. Exactly what TMS does to neuronal activity, however, remains unknown. We will apply single pulses of TMS while recording from single neurons in behaving non-human primates. Our TMS methods will correspond to those used in humans and will be easily adoptable by any primate neurophysiology laboratory. A team of researchers will design custom TMS coils to direct the focus of stimulation to precise locations of cerebral cortex, innovative electronics to permit neuronal recordings within 1 ms after TMS pulses, and controlled visual- oculomotor tasks to allow systematic variation of behavioral and thus neuronal state. We will record from single neurons and field potentials at both the site of stimulation and at distant but monosynaptically connected sites. The end result of our work will be to discover how TMS influences the brain at the level of single neurons and simple circuits. Implications will include improved, physiologically-guided TMS protocols for human basic research studies and therapeutic applications.