Physiological connectivity of the left ventral premotor cortex to the ipsilateral primary motor cortex explored by TMS

Paired transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been applied as a probe to test functional connectivity within distinct cortical areas of the motor system. Depending on the intensity of a conditioning stimulus applied to different areas of the cortical motor network both facilitation and inhibition may be detected in the primary motor cortex (M1), ipsilaterally or contralaterally to the site of conditioning stimulation. Civardi (2001) and our group (Koch; unpublished data) reported that conditioning stimuli applied to the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) may induce distinct effects on ipsilateral M1 depending on…