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Human Cortical Physiology Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
We studied the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex on ipsilateral upper extremity muscles in six normal men. Stimulation had inhibitory and excitatory effects on the muscles during voluntary activation. Transient inhibition, an ipsilateral silent period (ISP), occurred in all muscles tested, often without any preceding excitatory response. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) occurred ipsilaterally in the proximal muscles of some subjects. Ipsilateral MEPs and ISPs were delayed relative to the MEPs evoked by the same stimulus in the corresponding contralateral muscles. The excitability of the alpha motoneuron pool, assessed during the period of the ISP by eliciting H-reflexes, showed no change, suggesting that ipsilateral inhibition acts at a level above the alpha motoneuron. Connections from motor cortex to ipsilateral muscles could be via the corpus callosum and contralateral hemisphere or via purely ipsilateral pathways.
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