(C) A condition where the participant performed a visual attention task (Fig. 2). For all three parts, the TMS output was recorded from the FDI muscle. Again, verbal answers were given after the end of the trial and recorded by one investigator. For all parts, no feedback was given to avoid learning effects. The output measures were motor evoked potentials (MEPs), SICI and intracortical facilitation (ICF). In experiment series 2, TMS-evoked responses were recorded from the FDI and abductor digiti

minimi (ADM) muscles; in one condition the participant had to detect weak electrical shocks given to the skin area overlying the find more ADM muscle and in the other condition to the skin area overlying the FDI muscle. Subjects were seated comfortably in an armchair

with their forearms resting on a pillow in front of them. The arm and hand muscles were relaxed throughout all experiments. TMS was performed using two MAGSTIM 200 stimulators connected by a Y-cable to a figure-of-eight-shaped coil with an external wing diameter of 9 cm (Magstim, Dyfed, UK). The coil was held with the handle pointing posteriorly and laterally at ~45° to the sagittal midline to evoke an anteriorly directed current in the brain. Magnetic stimuli were delivered at the optimal scalp site for evoking MEPs in the target muscles. Surface electromyography in a belly-tendon montage was recorded from the FDI muscle (experiment series 1) or the FDI and ADM muscles (experiment series 2). The see more raw Selleck PS-341 signal was amplified and band-pass filtered from 20 Hz to 1 kHz (Digitimer Ltd). Signals were sampled using a CED Power 1401 interface (Cambridge Electronic Design, Cambridge, UK) at 5 kHz and stored for off-line analysis. Cutaneous skin stimulation was applied using two cup electrodes (0.4 cm diameter) placed ~2 cm apart over the skin area of the dorsum of the hand (series 1) or the FDI or ADM muscle (series 2). The cathode was placed

proximally and the anode distally. Stimuli consisted of 1 ms electrical square-wave pulses delivered via a constant-current stimulator (DS7; Digitimer Ltd). The individual perceptual threshold (PT) was determined for each subject and skin stimulation was applied just above the threshold (1.1 PT). The PT was defined as the minimal stimulus intensity at which subjects were able to identify five out of five stimuli. The intensity was determined by using several series of stimuli of increasing and decreasing intensities from well below to well above the PT. None of the subjects considered an intensity of 1.1 PT to be painful. Such a low intensity was used to avoid direct ‘capture’ of attention by the stimulus and to assure that the attention task was sufficiently difficult. In the relevant experiments (see below), two different patterns of sensory stimulation were used, a single pulse and a series of three stimuli.