Summer School 2010
On 28th and 29th July 2010, Magstim and the University of Oxford ran another successful TMS Summer School, building upon the programmes of the previous four years' events. Hosted in the Department of Experimental Psychology, the School attracted a large number of delegates including people from Australia, Indonesia, the USA, Canada, Middle East, continental Europe, Japan as well as from the UK.
The event was staged over two days, and was notable for its community spirit amongst speakers and delegates alike, greatly aided by a superb dinner at Wadham College on the Monday evening.
The event began with a plenary lecture by Professor Anthony Barker, who gave an informative, highly entertaining overview of the development of TMS in his laboratory at Sheffield. He reviewed key aspects of the physics and engineering pertinent to magnetic stimulation and where future advances might lead us.
The programme for Day 1 focussed on an important emerging trends in human brain stimulation research: going beyond the study of function in a single cortical area to the development of novel strategies required to study information processing in inter-connected neural circuits. In the first session on the visual system, Ralph Freeman reported work using optical imaging and local field potential recordings to cast light on the physiological impact of TMS. Christian Ruff went on to demonstrate how stimulation applied to attentional centres in frontal and parietal cortex can modulate retinotopic signals in early visual areas, with resulting consequences for attentional judgements. Marc Sommer provided detailed insight into his highly intricate microstimulation and recording work in primate cortical-subcortical circuits and outlined several future applications of TMS to this field.
After a short break for lunch, two talks by Rogier Mars and Giacomo Koch explained the technique of paired-pulse TMS and how, by measuring changes in the amplitude of evoked hand muscle responses, it is possible to probe sub-second changes in information processing within a variety of cortico-cortical connection pathways that converge on the primary motor cortex.
The focus of the afternoon session switched to cognition, with Alberto Priori reviewing a range of studies from his laboratory in which transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been used to manipulate various higher order mental functions, such as those concerned with social decision-making. Antonio Strafella then outlined his work, showing how the combination of TMS with dopaminergic ligands and PET imaging allows access to processing in cortico-striatal circuits that subserve cognitive flexibility.
The final session of day 1 concluded with three of six awarded oral platform presentations. An international judging panel consisting of Michal Lavidor, Carlo Miniussi, Michael Nitsche, Jacinta O'Shea, Simone Rossi, John Starzewski and Vincent Walsh, selected one winner of the Young Investigator Award 2010. Poster abstracts were reviewed by a panel composed of six of the invited speakers, who ranked all submissions and then selected the top five for prize platform presentations.
Daniela Balslev (University of Cophenhagen) was awarded the Young Investigator Award for her pioneering work on the role of proprioceptive eye signals in visual attention. This was followed by Roshan Cools (Donders Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) who presented a combined TMS/fMRI study of the cognitive consequences of stimulation-induced striatal dopamine release. The final speaker was Takenobu Murakami (University of Frankfurt) who presented combined TMS, fMRI, electrophysiology and behavioural data on properties of the human mirror system.
The theme of Day 2 was to consider an important area of emerging research: the application of brain stimulation to enhance sensory, motor or cognitive functions. Nick Rawlins (University of Oxford) set the context for the day by reviewing the history and key findings in this field of endeavour in animals, and highlighted some important knowns and unknowns from manipulation of synaptic plasticity in animals. John Krakauer (University of Columbia, New York) followed this with a critical appraisal of various motor learning paradigms and emphasized the need for conceptual clarity in this domain.
After a short break for coffee, Michael Nitsche (University of Gottingen) and Hartwig Siebner (University of Cophenhagen) reviewed the foundations of tDCS and various TMS protocols, highlighted key principles, and signalled various cautions in applying these techniques.
After lunch, Lisa Marshall (University of Lubeck) presented data on declarative memory enhancement following brain stimulation during sleep. Roi Cohen Kadosh (University of Oxford) reviewed the domain of numerical cognition and showed how TDCS can potentially enhance mathematical processing.
In the next session, the last three poster prize winners gave brief oral presentations. Vanessa Johnen (University of Oxford) demonstrated how brain stimulation could be used to selectively potentiate physiological connections between adjacent brain areas. Jennifer Stephenson (University of Denver, USA) described her work investigating how changes in the balance of excitation and inhibition within the cortico-spinal tract might contribute to alleviating chronic neck pain. Luigi Cattaneo (University of Trento, Italy) then described eletrophysiological and behavioural work demonstrating how one’s recent motor experience causally influences subsequent visual perception.
The meeting concluded with two talks that considered potential future clinical applications of brain stimulation to stroke rehabilitation. Charlotte Stagg (University of Oxford) demonstrated how tDCS alters brain neurochemistry and how these effects may mediate observed learning improvements. Leo Cohen (National Institute of Health, USA) then considered the prospect of applying these kinds of intervention to stroke patients, concluding that while the field is still very firmly at the experimental intervention stage, the future looks bright.
The event was organised by Dr. Jacinta O’Shea, Dr. Heidi Johansen-Berg and Professor Vincent Walsh.
If you attended this year's Summer School, and would like to provide feedback so we can improve the event for 2011, please click here.
About the Summer School
As a demonstration of its commitment to pioneering research, Magstim hosts an annual Summer School for students of neuromodulation and magnetic stimulation. Organised in collaboration with Professor Vince Walsh,
To reflect the breadth and international scope of the chosen field of any given year, speakers are drawn from across the fields of Neuroscience and Neurology with a programme covering a variety of highly relevant topics over two days.
The annual Magstim Young Investigator Award prize is announced during the meeting, and the winner has the opportunity to present their work as part of the overall Summer School programme. Prizes are also awarded for outstanding contributions to the field of Neuroscience and Neurology.
To complement the programme there are demonstrations of related equipment from Magstim and a poster display.
A report on 2007's Summer School can be found in Issue 2 of Neuromodulation News, while there's coverage of the 2008 event in Issue 3 (both of which can also be downloaded by clicking here).
