D. Urbach et F. Awiszus, Effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation on results of the twitch interpolation technique, MUSCLE NERV, 23(7), 2000, pp. 1125-1128
To investigate whether transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has an effec
t on isometric muscle force elicited by maximal voluntary contractions (MVC
) and the ability to activate a muscle voluntarily (VA, as a percentage of
full muscle activation), a twitch-interpolation technique was applied on th
e quadriceps femoris muscles of six volunteers before and within 1 min afte
r TMS. VA improved by 5% (P = 0.019) and MVC by 17% (P = 0.002), whereas th
ese parameters were unchanged in a control experiment. The results suggest
that TMS has an effect on the central motor drive, at least within 1 min af
ter stimulation. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.