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. 2015 Feb 18:16:5.
doi: 10.1186/s12868-015-0143-9.

Stimulation frequency determines the distribution of language positive cortical regions during navigated transcranial magnetic brain stimulation

Theresa Hauck  1 , Noriko Tanigawa  2 , Monika Probst  3 , Afra Wohlschlaeger  4 , Sebastian Ille  5 , Nico Sollmann  6 , Stefanie Maurer  7 , Claus Zimmer  8 , Florian Ringel  9 , Bernhard Meyer  10 , Sandro M Krieg  11
Affiliations

Stimulation frequency determines the distribution of language positive cortical regions during navigated transcranial magnetic brain stimulation

Theresa Hauck et al. BMC Neurosci. .

Abstract

Background: Although language mapping by repetitive navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) gains importance in neuropsychological research and clinical utility, neuroscientists still use different mapping protocols including different stimulation frequencies. To refine the existing language protocol, we tested two different repetition rates of 5 Hz/10 pulses and 7 Hz/10 pulses with a 0 ms delay in 19 healthy subjects. We furthermore investigated differences between both frequencies in case of performance of four different language tasks: object naming, pseudoword reading, verb generation, and action naming.

Results: Even the small variance in frequencies revealed statistically significant differences concerning the number and type of language errors. Stimulation with 5 Hz evoked a higher number of all occurred language errors in all language tasks (error rate object naming 14% (5 Hz) vs. 12% (7 Hz); pseudoword reading 4% (5 Hz) vs. 3% (7 Hz); verb generation 13% (5 Hz) vs. 11% (7 Hz); action naming 11% (5 Hz) vs. 9% (7 Hz)), whereas 7 Hz evoked specifically more total speech arrests.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the stimulation frequency has to be adapted to the aim of the rTMS language investigation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Outline of the 46 stimulated cortical spots. In each task, each point was stimulated three times.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall error rates (a), no response error rates (b), and hesitation error rates (c) revealed by language mapping via rTMS. Distribution of elicited naming errors while performing object naming, pseudoword reading, verb generation, and action naming shown for stimulation with 5 Hz and 7 Hz.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of all elicited naming errors (error rates) while task performing. Results are demonstrated for the object naming, pseudoword reading, verb generation, and action naming task for 5 Hz and for 7 Hz.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Error type (%) differences across task types. Error rates per error category during object naming, pseudoword reading, verb generation, and action naming shown for 5 Hz (a) and 7 Hz (b). For detailed values see also Table 3.
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