Research into the diagnosis and treatment of a number of neurological conditions through magnetic stimulation was recently discussed at the third annual Magstim TMS Summer School.
The event, held in conjunction with University College London (UCL), saw the announcement of the Magstim Young Investigator Award and Poster Prizes.
Dr Charlie Stagg of the University of Oxford received the Young Investigator Award for her work in exploring the potential use of TMS and TDCS as post stroke rehabilitative therapies, while the 2009 Poster Prize was awarded to Marius Moisa of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany.
Moisa and colleagues developed a method that combines TMS and continuous arterial spin labelling (CASL) as an alternative to more traditional imaging methods to assess the effect of TMS on brain connectivity.
This combination enables the measurement of both blood oxygenation level-dependant (Bold) signal and blood perfusion, an important advantage when studying the effects of TMS on brain connectivity.
The Magstim Summer School has continued to advance the use of brain stimulation techniques as a means of improving understanding of specific neural structures.
It is hoped that with the forum discussions and research techniques presented at the Summer School, techniques such as TMS can be utilised further in developing possible rehabilitative treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's, depression and stroke.
