RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation-Induced Changes in Sensorimotor Coupling Parallel Improvements of Somatosensation in Humans JF The Journal of Neuroscience JO J. Neurosci. FD Society for Neuroscience SP 1945 OP 1952 DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4097-05.2006 VO 26 IS 7 A1 Burkhard Pleger A1 Felix Blankenburg A1 Sven Bestmann A1 Christian C. Ruff A1 Katja Wiech A1 Klaas E. Stephan A1 Karl J. Friston A1 Raymond J. Dolan YR 2006 UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/7/1945.abstract AB Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an established technique for non-invasive stimulation of human cortex. Although studies have shown an influence of rTMS on single cortical regions and on simple behavioral response patterns, its influences on the dynamics of task-related activity in cortical networks have not been characterized. We provide such a characterization by showing that 5 Hz rTMS over primary somatosensory cortex (SI) induces a reconfiguration of activity patterns in a sensorimotor network, comprising the stimulated region and ipsilateral primary motor cortex (MI). These plastic changes endure for up to 120 min and are correlated with behavioral improvement in discrimination. Dynamic causal modeling showed that this reconfiguration could be explained by an rTMS-induced increase in SI excitability (self-connection) and an increase in the effective connectivity from SI to MI. Thus, our data demonstrate that rTMS can temporarily induce behaviorally relevant reorganization within a complex cortical network underlying human somatosensory experience.