IS 48. NBS and language

Abstract

Using non-invasive stimulation techniques in the healthy human brain allows for the investigation of acute focal “lesion” effects that are not confounded by chronic processes mediating functional recovery. In this talk, I will outline how TMS can be used to characterize the involvement of homologous right hemisphere brain regions in language. The first part of my talk focuses on the use of multifocal dual-site “online” TMS approaches in which TMS is applied either unilaterally over homologous areas in the left or right hemisphere or simultaneously to both hemispheres during different language comprehension tasks. Here, online TMS is used to characterize the contribution of the stimulated area to a specific language function. The dual-site TMS approach further offers the possibility to study interhemispheric compensation by comparing the effects of unilateral TMS over either hemisphere with the effects of bilateral stimulation. I will also introduce the “condition-and-perturb” TMS approach which combines the application of offline and online TMS over different nodes within a functional network. This approach allows for the investigation of intact interactions and adaptive short-term reorganisation processes within intrahemispheric language networks. The second part of my talk focuses on the combination of offline TMS (i.e., TMS before a task) and functional MRI to investigate compensatory short-term reorganisation and changes in effective connectivity in the language network.