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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 101/6/2872    most recent 91060.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Stagg, C. J. Articles by Bestmann, S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Stagg, C. J. Articles by Bestmann, S.

Neurochemical Effects of Theta Burst Stimulation as Assessed by Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

¹Centre for Functional Resonance Imaging of the Brain and ²Department of Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford, Oxford; ³Biological Imaging Centre, Imaging Sciences Department, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and ⁴Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Imperial College London and GSK Clinical Imaging Centre, Hammersmith Hospital; and ⁵Sobell Department of Movement Neuroscience and Movement Disorders and ⁶Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College, London, United Kingdom

Submitted 15 September 2008; accepted in final form 24 March 2009

Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a novel transcranial stimulation technique that causes significant inhibition of synaptic transmission for 1 h when applied over the primary motor cortex (M1) in humans. Here we use magnetic resonance spectroscopy to define mechanisms mediating this inhibition by noninvasively measuring local changes in the cortical concentrations of -aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate/glutamine (Glx). cTBS to the left M1 led to an increase in GABA compared with stimulation at a control site without significant change in Glx. This direct evidence for increased GABAergic interneuronal activity is framed in terms of a new hypothesis regarding mechanisms underlying cTBS.