Finger Tapping Task Activation vs. TMS Hotspot: Different Locations and Networks

Jue Wang,Hai-Jiang Meng,Hong-Xiao Wang,Yu-Feng Zang,Zi-Jian Feng,Gong-Jun Ji,Jian Zhang,Ying Jing,Xin-Ping Deng,Na Zhao

doi:10.1007/s10548-019-00741-9

Abstract

Both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been used to non-invasively localize the human motor functional area. These locations can be clinically used as stimulation target of TMS treatment. However, it has been reported that the finger tapping fMRI activation and TMS hotspot were not well-overlapped. The aim of the current study was to measure the distance between the finger tapping fMRI activation and the TMS hotspot, and more importantly, to compare the network difference by using resting-state fMRI. Thirty healthy participants underwent resting-state fMRI, task fMRI, and then TMS hotspot localization. We found significant difference of locations between finger tapping fMRI activation and TMS hotspot. Specifically, the finger tapping fMRI activation was more lateral than the TMS hotspot in the premotor area. The fMRI activation peak and TMS hotspot were taken as seeds for resting-state functional connectivity analyses. Compared with TMS hotspot, finger tapping fMRI activation peak showed more intensive functional connectivity with, e.g., the bilateral premotor, insula, putamen, and right globus pallidus. The findings more intensive networks of finger tapping activation than TMS hotspot suggest that TMS treatment targeting on the fMRI activation area might result in more remote effects and would be more helpful for TMS treatment on movement disorders.

Highlights

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the brain motor area has been utilized safely for decades in clinics for measuring the cortical excitability (Hanlon et al 2015; Stinear et al 2009), preoperative localization of motor function (Kallioniemi and Julkunen 2016; Pitkanen et al 2015; Vitikainen et al 2013), and repetitive TMS treatment for movement disorders (Wagle Shukla et al 2016)
The activation-based and abductor pollicis brevis (APB) hotspot-based functional connectivity maps were shown in Fig. 6 (Fig. 6 upper row)
Paired t-tests showed that the finger tapping activation seeds had significantly more intensive functional connectivity than TMS-induced seeds, including the right globus pallidus, bilateral putamen, bilateral insula, and bilateral precentral gyri (Fig. 7, Table 5)

Summary

Introduction

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the brain motor area has been utilized safely for decades in clinics for measuring the cortical excitability (Hanlon et al 2015; Stinear et al 2009), preoperative localization of motor function (Kallioniemi and Julkunen 2016; Pitkanen et al 2015; Vitikainen et al 2013), and repetitive TMS (rTMS) treatment for movement disorders (Wagle Shukla et al 2016). The lateral motor cortices are among the most frequently used targets for the rTMS treatment of movement disorders, e.g., Parkinson’s disease (Wagle Shukla et al 2016), stroke (DiekhoffKrebs et al 2017), tic disorder (Marsili et al 2017), and writer’s cramp (Havrankova et al 2010). Vast majority of these rTMS treatment studies used the hand motor hotspot as the stimulation target.

Objectives

Methods

Results