Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on May 8, 2007
Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(1):210-216; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm047
© 2007 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Priming Frequencies of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over Wernicke's Area Modulate Word Detection
Jamila Andoh1,2,3, Eric Artiges1,2,3, Christophe Pallier4, Denis Rivière5, Jean-Francois Mangin1,2,3,5, Marie-Laure Paillère-Martinot1,2,3,6 and Jean-Luc Martinot1,2,3

1 Inserm U797 Research Unit "Neuroimaging and Psychiatry," IFR 49, Orsay, France, 2 CEA, "Neuroimaging and Psychiatry," U797 Unit, Hospital Department Frédéric Joliot and Neurospin, I2BM, Orsay, France, 3 Paris Sud University, UMR U797, Orsay, Paris 5 University Rene Descartes, UMR U797, Paris, France, 4 Inserm U562—"Cognitive Neuroimaging" Unit, IFR 49, Hospital Department Frédéric Joliot, Orsay, France, 5 Image Analysis and Structural Anatomy Group, IFR 49, Neurospin, I2BM, Orsay, France, 6 AP-HP, Department of Adolescent Medicine, Maison de Solenn, Cochin Hospital, Paris, France

Address correspondence to Jean-Luc Martinot, CEA—INSERM Research Unit "Neuroimaging and Psychiatry," Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, 4 place Général Leclerc, 91401 Orsay, France. Email: jean-luc.martinot@cea.fr.

Priming stimulations have shown powerful effects on motor cortex behavior. However, the effects over language areas have not been explored. We assessed the effects of different priming frequencies of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), 1 Hz rTMS or 50 Hz bursts of rTMS (theta burst stimulation [TBS]), on temporoparietal language areas (i.e., Wernicke's area) localized with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional maps were acquired during an auditory word-detection task with native or foreign language sentences in 14 healthy men. Frameless stereotaxy was used to guide the transcranial magnetic stimulation coil position over Wernicke's area. Active and placebo randomized sessions of priming stimulations (1 Hz rTMS or TBS) were applied at rest, and response times (RTs) were recorded during the auditory word-detection task performed subsequently with 1 Hz rTMS. Individual anatomofunctional maps localized activation in Wernicke's area. Repeated-measure analysis of variance for RTs revealed that priming with 1 Hz rTMS facilitated the detection of native words, whereas priming with TBS facilitated the detection of foreign words. Consistent with motor cortex studies, these findings suggest that priming frequency plays a crucial role in word detection in the auditory stream.

Key Words: functional magnetic resonance imaging • theta burst stimulation • transcranial magnetic stimulation • Wernicke's area

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Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by INSERM.