Influence of intermittent photic stimulation on the temporal aspects of cortical silent period in subjects with and without epilepsy – a TMS based study

Objective: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a well established method for investigation of excitatory and inhibitory circuits of human cortex. Our study analysed temporal changes of intracortical inhibition expressed in the duration of the cortical silent period (CSP) over the motor cortex before and under intermittent photic stimulation (IPS). Methods: CSPs were analysed during ten successive trials. CSP was produced by TMS (2 T Magstim 200) stimuli with 150% intensity of resting motor threshold in healthy subjects with (N=12) and without (N=14) photoparoxysmal response, and in patients with idiopatic…