Development of a TMS Trigger System for Suppressing MEP Fluctuation Using EEG Coherence Analysis: Algorithm Development and Validation Study (Preprint)

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), when applied over the primary motor cortex, elicits a motor-evoked potential (MEP) in electromyograms measured from peripheral muscles. MEP amplitude has often been observed to fluctuate trial to trial, even with a constant stimulus. Many factors cause MEP fluctuations in TMS. One of the primary factors is the weak stationarity and instability of cortical activity in the brain, from which we assumed MEP fluctuations originate. We hypothesized that MEP fluctuations are suppressed when TMS is delivered to the primary motor cortex at a time when several electroencephalogram (EEG) channels measured on the scalp are highly similar in the frequency domain. Objective: We developed a TMS triggering system to suppress MEP fluctuations using EEG coherence analysis, which was performed to detect the EEG signal similarity between the 2 channels in the frequency domain. Methods: Seven healthy adults participated in the experiment to confirm whether the TMS trigger system works adequately, and the mean amplitude and coefficient of the MEP variation were recorded and compared with the values obtained during the control task. We also determined the experimental time under each condition and verified whether it was within the predicted time. Results: The coefficient of variation of MEP amplitude decreased in 5 of the 7 participants, and significant differences (P=.02) were confirmed in 2 of the participants according to an F test. The coefficient of variation of the experimental time required for each stimulus after threshold modification was less than that without threshold modification, and a significant difference (P<.001) was confirmed by performing an F test. Conclusions: We found that MEP could be suppressed using the system developed in this study and that the TMS trigger system could also stabilize the experimental time by changing the triggering threshold automatically.