Completed study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine how the brain controls muscle movement in dystonia. Dystonia is a movement disorder in which involuntary muscle contractions cause uncontrolled twisting and repetitive movement or abnormal postures.
Theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TBS) is a type of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) method that reduces the excitability of a small region of brain for less than one hour. Since dystonia and spasticity may be associated with increased excitability of motor cortex, we expect that by reducing the excitability of motor cortex with TBS we will temporarily improve these symptoms and hopefully open avenues in the future for the use of TBS as a new, non-invasive therapeutic intervention to aid in physical therapy and symptom amelioration of dystonia and spasticity.
Stanford trial assessing use of Theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TBS) as a new, non-invasive therapeutic intervention to aid in physical therapy and symptom amelioration of dystonia and spasticity