Subjective discomfort of TMS predicts reaction times differences in published studies

Abstract

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was developed 30 years ago, in part to decrease the peripheral side-effects associated with transcranial electrical stimulation (Barker, 1991). TMS has been effective in that aim, and great advances have been made over the past 30 years. TMS can still be uncomfortable and painful, however, as it stimulates excitable superficial tissue including scalp muscles and peripheral nerves (Maizey et al., 2013). This causes annoyance, pain, and muscle twitches (i.e., discomfort) that vary systematically across the scalp (Meteyard and Holmes, 2018). While superior and posterior scalp locations are associated with almost no discomfort, inferior frontal and temporal locations are associated with significant discomfort. This discomfort can include sharp pain and strong contractions of scalp, head, and neck muscles. In protocols where TMS and a behavioral task are separated by time (“off-line”), these peripheral side-effects of brain stimulation may not affect subsequent task performance. But, in protocols where TMS is applied simultaneously with the behavioral task (“on-line”), these side-effects of TMS might interfere significantly with performance.