ReviewClinical neurophysiology practice2018
Utility of threshold tracking transcranial magnetic stimulation in ALS.
Review in Clinical neurophysiology practice, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Current Evidence and Future Perspectives.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Reduction in short interval intracortical inhibition from the early stage reflects the pathophysiology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A meta-analysis study.European journal of neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Very low-amplitude muscle activity increases probability of motor evoked potentials in healthy individuals and in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- Splicing the narrative: alternative TARDBP splicing and its relation to neurodegeneration in ALS and FTD.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Review
- Longitudinal assessment of cortical motor function in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Resting-State EEG Oscillations in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): Toward Mechanistic Insights and Clinical Markers.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Review
- A transient protein folding response targets aggregation in the early phase of TDP-43-mediated neurodegeneration.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Clinical diagnostic utility of transcranial magnetic stimulation in neurological disorders. Updated report of an IFCN committee.Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023Review
- Dependence of cortical neuronal strength-duration properties on TMS pulse shape.Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023Article
- Short latency afferent inhibition: comparison between threshold-tracking and conventional amplitude recording methods.Experimental brain research · 2022Article
- Early diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by threshold tracking and conventional transcranial magnetic stimulation.European journal of neurology · 2021Article
- Cortical Excitability across the ALS Clinical Motor Phenotypes.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Transcranial Random Noise Stimulation Acutely Lowers the Response Threshold of Human Motor Circuits.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Article
- Corticospinal Excitability during a Perspective Taking Task as Measured by TMS-Induced Motor Evoked Potentials.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Diagnostics of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Up to Date.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Cortical hyperexcitability evolves with disease progression in ALS.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2020Article
- Exciting Complexity: The Role of Motor Circuit Elements in ALS Pathophysiology.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Review
- Regional motor cortex dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Upper motor neuron [UMN] and lower motor neuron [LMN] dysfunction, in the absence of sensory features, is a pathognomonic feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS]. Although the precise mechanisms have yet to be elucidated, one leading hypothesis is that UMN precede LMN dysfunction, which is induced by anterograde glutamatergic excitotoxicity. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a neurophysiological tool that provides a non-invasive and painless assessment of cortical function. Threshold tracking methodologies have been recently adopted for TMS, whereby changes in threshold rather than motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude serve as outcome measures. This technique is reliable and provides a rapid assessment of cortical function in ALS. Utilisng the threshold tracking TMS technique, cortical hyperexcitability was demonstrated as an early feature in sporadic ALS preceding the onset of LMN dysfunction and possibly contributing to disease spread. Separately, cortical hyperexcitability was reported to precede the clinical onset of familial ALS. Of further relevance, the threshold tracking TMS technique was proven to reliably distinguish ALS from mimicking disorders, even in the presence of a comparable degree of LMN dysfunction, suggesting a diagnostic utility of TMS. Taken in total, threshold tracking TMS has provided support for a cortical involvement at the earliest detectable stages of ALS, underscoring the utility of the technique for probing the underlying pathophysiology. The present review will discuss the physiological processes underlying TMS parameters, while further evaluating the pathophysiological and diagnostic utility of threshold tracking TMS in ALS.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.