Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T01:44:07.881Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Investigation of Motor Function in Schizophrenia using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Motor Cortex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

B. K. Puri ,
N. J. Davey ,
P. H. Ellaway  and
S. W. Lewis
B. K. Puri
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London
N. J. Davey*
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London
P. H. Ellaway
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London
S. W. Lewis
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, University of Manchester
*
Dr N. J. Davey, Department of Physiology, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, St Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

In this first investigation of motor function in schizophrenia using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the general hypothesis tested was that this methodology could be used to investigate the disruption of corticospinal inhibitory processes suggested by cognitive and psychophysiological paradigms.

Method

Nine drug-free DSM–IV schizophrenic patients were compared with nine age- and sex-matched normal subjects. Electromyographic (EMG) recordings were made from the thenar muscles of the dominant hand during sustained, weak voluntary contraction. TMS over a particular threshold applied to the motor cortex would elicit a compound motor evoked potential (cMEP) followed by a period of suppression of EMG.

Results

The latency of cMEPs following TMS was significantly shorter in the schizophrenic patients. The two groups did not differ significantly with respect to mean latency of suppression of EMG activity, or stimulus thresholds for either cMEPs or EMG suppression.

Conclusion

These findings could be the result of a relative lack of corticospinal inhibition of motor responses; a change in the site of TMS activation; or an abnormality of peripheral nervous function in schizophrenia. Drug effects were unlikely since seven of the patients were drug-naïve.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 169 , Issue 6 , December 1996 , pp. 690 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM–IV). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Amassian, V. E., Eberle, L., Maccabee, P. J., et al (1992) Modelling magnetic coil excitation of human cerebral cortex with a peripheral nerve immersed in a brain shaped volume conductor. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 85, 291–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, S. N., Olivier, E. & Lemon, R. N. (1994) Recording an identified pyramidal volley evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation in a conscious macaque monkey. Experimental Brain Research, 99, 529–532.Google Scholar
Barker, A. T., Jalinous, R. & Freeston, I. L. (1985) Non-invasive magnetic stimulation of human motor cortex (letter). Lancet, i, 1106–1107.Google Scholar
Beckers, G. & Hömberg, V. (1992) Cerebral visual motion blindness: transitory akinetopsia induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation of human area V5. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 294, 173–178.Google Scholar
Beech, A., Powell, T., McWilliam, J., et al (1989) Evidence of reduced ‘cognitive inhibition’ in schizophrenia. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 28, 109–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boro, J., Edstrom, L., Bjerkenstedt, L., et al (1987) Muscle biopsy findings, conduction velocity and refractory period of single motor nerve fibres in schizophrenia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 50, 1655–1664.Google Scholar
Crayton, J. W., Stalberg, E. & Hilton-Brown, P. (1977) The motor unit in psychotic patients: a single fibre EMG study. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 40, 455–463.Google Scholar
Davey, N. J., Romaiguère, P., Maskill, D. W., et al (1994) Suppression of voluntary motor activity revealed using transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex in man. Journal of Physiology, 477, 223–225.Google Scholar
Day, B. L., Thompson, P. D., Dick, J. P., et al (1987) Different sites of action of electrical and magnetic stimulation of the human brain. Neuroscience Letters, 75, 101–106.Google Scholar
Day, B. L., Dressler, D., Maertens de Noordhout, A., et al (1989) Electric and magnetic stimulation of human motor cortex: surface EMG and single motor unit responses. Journal of Physiology, 412, 449–473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edgley, S. A., Eyre, J. A., Lemon, R. N., et al (1990) Excitation of the corticospinal tract by electromagnetic and electrical stimulation of the scalp in the macaque monkey. Journal of Physiology, 425, 301–320.Google Scholar
Edgley, S. A., Eyre, J. A., Lemon, R. N., et al (1992) Direct and indirect activation of corticospinal neurones by electrical and magnetic stimulation in the anaesthetized macaque monkey. Journal of Physiology, 446, 224P.Google Scholar
Ferbert, A., Priori, A., Rothwell, J. C., et al (1992) Interhemispheric inhibition of the human motor cortex. Journal of Physiology, 453, 525–546.Google Scholar
Freedman, R., Adler, L. E., Gerhardt, G. A., et al (1987) Neurobiological studies of sensory gating in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 669–678.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frith, C. D. (1979) Consciousness, information processing and schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 225–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geyer, M. A. & Braff, D. L. (1987) Startle habituation and sensorimotor gating in schizophrenia and related animal models. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 643–668.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goode, D. J., Meltzer, H. Y., Crayton, J. W., et al (1977) Physiologic abnormalities of the neuromuscular system in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 3, 121–138.Google Scholar
Kwapil, T. R., Hegley, D. C., Chapman, L. J., et al (1990) Facilitation of word recognition by semantic priming in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 215–221.Google Scholar
Shaunak, S. D., Davey, N. J., Hawkin, M. B., et al (1995) Spatial inaccuracy of remembered saccades induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in man. Journal of Physiology, 489, 29P.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.