Modulation of Long-Term Potentiation-Like Cortical Plasticity in the Healthy Brain With Low Frequency-Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields

Non-depolarizing magnetic fields, like Low Frequency-Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (LF-PEMFs) have shown the ability to modulate living structures, principally by influencing synaptic activity and ion channels on cellular membranes. Recently, the CTU Mega 20 device was presented as a molecular accelerator, using energy up to 200 Joules and providing high-power (2 Tesla) pulsating fields with a water-repulsive (diamagnetic) action and tissue biostimulation. The investigators tested the hypothesis that LF-PEMFs could modulate long-term corticospinal excitability in healthy brains by applying CTU Mega 20®. Ten healthy subjects without known neurological and/or psychiatric diseases entered the study. A randomized double-blind sham-controlled crossover design was employed, recording TMS parameters (amplitude variation of the motor evoked potential as index of cortical excitability perturbations of the motor system) before (pre) and after (post +0, +15, +30 min) a single CTU Mega 20 session on the corresponding primary right-hand motor area, using a real (magnetic field = 2 Tesla; intensity = 90 J; impulse frequency = 7Hz; duration = 15 minutes) or sham device. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA with TIME (pre, post +0, +15, +30 min) and TREATMENT (real vs sham stimulation) as within-subjects factor was applied.