Article

Purposeful manipulation of cortical plasticity and excitability within
somatosensory regions may have therapeutic potential.
Non-invasive brain
stimulation (NBS) techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or
transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have shown promise towards this
end with certain NBS protocols augmenting somatosensory processing and others
down-regulating it. Here, we review NBS protocols which, when applied to primary
somatosensory cortex, facilitate cortical excitability and tactile acuity (i.e., high-frequency repetitive TMS (rTMS), intermittent theta burst stimulation (TBS),
paired associative stimulation (PAS) N20-5 to 0, anodal tDCS), and protocols that
inhibit the same (i.e., low-frequency rTMS, continuous TBS, PAS N20-20, cathodal tDCS). Other studies have targeted multisensory regions of the brain to modulate
somatosensory processing. These studies in full present a wide array of
strategies in which NBS can be utilized to influence somatosensory processing in
a behaviorally and clinically relevant capacity.

Langue : ANGLAIS