Since becoming commercially available in 1985, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has emerged as an important tool in several areas of neuroscience. Originally envisioned as a way to measure the responsiveness and conduction speed of neurons and synapses in the brain and spinal cord, TMS has also become an important tool for changing the activity of brain neurons and the functions they subserve and an important adjunct to brain imaging and mapping techniques. Along with transcranial electrical stimulation techniques, TMS has diffused far beyond the borders of clinical neurophysiology and into cognitive, perceptual, behavioural, and therapeutic investigation and attracted a highly diverse group of users and would-be users. This book provides an authoritative review of the scientific and technical background required to understand transcranial stimulation techniques and a wide-ranging survey of their burgeoning application in neurophysiology, perception, cognition, emotion, and clinical practice. Each of its six sections deals with a major area and is edited by an international authority therein. It will serve researchers, clinicians, students, and others as the definitive text in this area for years to come.

It is now well known that the functional organisation of the cerebral cortex is plastic and that changes in organisation occur throughout life in response to normal and abnormal experience. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive and painless technique that has opened up completely new and fascinating avenues to study neural plasticity. First, TMS can be used to detect changes in excitability or connectivity of the stimulated cortex which may have occurred through processes such as learning or recovery from a lesion. Second, repeated TMS by itself can induce changes in excitability and connectivity of the stimulated cortex which may be used therapeutically in neurological and psychiatric disease. Third, TMS can induce short-lasting 'virtual lesions', which may directly test the functional relevance of brain plasticity. Current knowledge of all these exciting possibilities is brought together in this book, written by the world's leading experts in the field. The book is an essential compendium on plasticity of the human brain for clinical neurophysiologists, neurologists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists.

Bislang konkurrenzlos auf dem deutschsprachigen Fachbuchmarkt: Das anschauliche TMS-Buch gibt Einsteigern und Fortgeschrittenen den aktuellen und umfassenden Uberblick uber alle wichtigen Themen. Die transkranielle Magnetstimulation erlaubt die schmerzlose Stimulation des menschlichen Gehirns. Sie ist eine neue, hoch innovative und nicht-invasive Methode mit breit gefacherten Einsatzmoglichkeiten, u.a. in der Neurologie und Psychiatrie. Wer sich fur den "state of the art" interessiert und TMS verstehen will, ist hier genau richtig - von der Routinediagnostik uber Befunde und den Einsatz in der Hirnforschung bis hin zu Therapie und Anwendung."