Author(s): Benussi A, Padovani A and Borroni B
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become a safe, noninvasive, and promising tool to assess specific cortical circuits in the central nervous system. Since its introduction, the use of TMS in clinical neurophysiology, neurology, neuroscience, and psychiatry has spread widely, leading to important findings on cortical function in physiological and pathological conditions. Indeed, numerous studies have described abnormalities in specific cortical circuits using particular TMS stimulation paradigms, which allow the indirect assessment of inhibitory and excitatory interneuronal activity, mainly dependent on GABA receptors, of central cholinergic activity, and of cortical plasticity. The objective of the present work is to examine the utility of TMS as a means to support and predict the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer ’s disease and other cortical dementias, in a setting where our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases is far from adequate.
