• Javier J Gonzalez-Rosa, Vanesa Soto-Leon, Pablo Real, Carmen Carrasco-Lopez, Guglielmo Foffani, Bryan A Strange, and Antonio Oliviero.
• Laboratory for Clinical Neuroscience, Centre of Biomedical Technology, Technical University of Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain.
• J. Neurosci. 2015 Jun 17;35(24):9182-93.

AbstractTranscranial static magnetic field stimulation (tSMS) was recently introduced as a promising tool to modulate human cerebral excitability in a noninvasive and portable way. However, a demonstration that static magnetic fields can influence human brain activity and behavior is currently lacking, despite evidence that static magnetic fields interfere with neuronal function in animals. Here we show that transcranial application of a static magnetic field (120-200 mT at 2-3 cm from the magnet surface) over the human occiput produces a focal increase in the power of alpha oscillations in underlying cortex. Critically, this neurophysiological effect of tSMS is paralleled by slowed performance in a visual search task, selectively for the most difficult target detection trials. The typical relationship between prestimulus alpha power over posterior cortical areas and reaction time (RT) to targets during tSMS is altered such that tSMS-dependent increases in alpha power are associated with longer RTs for difficult, but not easy, target detection trials. Our results directly demonstrate that a powerful magnet placed on the scalp modulates normal brain activity and induces behavioral changes in humans.Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/359182-12$15.00/0.

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