Research › Practitioner Perspectives
Assessing the Effects of Subthreshold Magnetic Stimulation on Brain Activation using sLORETA
STS Instructor Authored by Christen H. Stahl and Thomas Collura
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Article at a glance
Practitioner perspective. This article describes a clinician's own experience, cases or methods. It was not peer reviewed or controlled, so it can be subjective. Read it as practical insight, not as evidence that a treatment works.
- Area
- Practitioner Perspectives
- Authors
- Stahl C, Collura T
- Journal
- NeuroConnections (Winter 2012)
- Year
- 2012
- Participants
- 1 healthy adult
- Population
- Adults
- Protocol
- Subthreshold pulsed magnetic stimulation (3 Hz and 14 Hz) with sLORETA monitoring of Brodmann areas 4, 10 and 24
- Equipment
- BrainMaster Discovery; BrainMaster Atlantis; BrainAvatar
Key findings
- One healthy man in his late twenties; stimulation alternated with rest in 30-second blocks
- Brodmann areas 4 and 24 changed more than area 10 at both frequencies
- Stimulation at Cz tended to lower alpha at 14 Hz and raise it at 3 Hz
- Effects partly reversed during rest periods; the authors call for a larger, controlled replication
A single-person pilot that asked whether a very weak pulsed magnetic field, about a tenth of the earth's own field, changes EEG activity in a measurable way. A small custom coil driven from a BrainMaster Atlantis was held over different scalp sites for 30 seconds at a time, alternating with rest, at 14 Hz and then at 3 Hz, while sLORETA tracked activity in three brain regions. The motor strip and anterior cingulate changed more than the frontal pole, and the two frequencies sometimes shifted alpha in opposite directions. The authors are clear that one healthy volunteer, sessions at different times of day and a first run with too weak a field make the results tentative.
Read it in NeuroConnections, Winter 2012 (ISNR archive), p. 34 →