Transcranial magnetic stimulation research on reading and dyslexia: a new clinical intervention technique for treating dyslexia?

Mauritsvan den Noort, Esli Struys, Peggy Bosch
2015 Neuroimmunology and Neuroinflammation  
Rapid-rate transcranial magnetic stimulation Later, a variant of TMS was developed, which is called rapid-rate TMS (rTMS). [8, 9] Further improvements of the stimulators, which are now able to provide discharges at frequencies of up to 60 Hz, have greatly increased the value of TMS as a tool in cognitive neuroscience A B S T R A C T Nowadays, several noninvasive neuroimaging techniques, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), exist. The working mechanism behind TMS is a rapidly
more » ... ng magnetic field that generates an electric current via electromagnetic induction. When the coil is placed on the scalp, the magnetic field generates a physiological reaction in the underlying neural tissue. The TMS-induced change in the participant's behavior is used by researchers to investigate the causal relations between specific brain areas and cognitive functions such as language. A variant of TMS has been developed, which is called rapid-rate TMS (rTMS). In this review, three databases (Medline, Educational Resources Information Center, and Scopus) were searched for rTMS studies on normal reading and dyslexia with a cut-off date of October 31, 2014. rTMS was found to be a valuable tool for investigating questions related to reading research, both on the word and the sentence level. Moreover, it can be successfully used in research on dyslexia. Recently, (high-frequency) rTMS has been used as a "clinical" intervention technique for treating dyslexia and for improving reading performance by exciting underactive reading pathways in the brain. Finally, we end the paper with a discussion of future directions in the field of rTMS research and dyslexia, for instance, the promising prospect of combining TMS with simultaneous electroencephalographic imaging.
doi:10.4103/2347-8659.157967 fatcat:qzivhomwynewbhgoxfmbc2xkaq