Reduced plastic brain responses in schizophrenia: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Abstract

Background: Abnormalities in brain plasticity, possibly related to abnormal cortical inhibition (CI), have been proposed to underlie the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) provides a dynamic method for non-invasive study of plastic processes in the human brain. We aimed to determine whether patients with schizophrenia would exhibit an abnormal response to repetitive TMS (rTMS) applied to the motor cortex and whether this would relate to deficient cortical inhibition. Methods: Measures of motor cortical excitability and cortical inhibition were made before and after a single 15-min train of 1-Hz rTMS applied to the motor cortex in medicated and unmedicat..