Quantitative results concerning effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on mesoscopic brain activity.

Abstract

Phase transitions in the behavior of neuron populations depending on electromagnetic input as in repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation ("rTMS") are calculated, based on mesoscopic evolution equations, which are generated from stochastic single neuron models capturing a variety of inputs. Wherever synchronization of firing in neuron populations is measurable, the above model-based quantitative predictions of effects of rTMS on brain activity can, for the first time, be tested experimentally.