Tongue motor responses following transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex and proximal hypoglossal nerve in man.

Surface recordings of EMG responses were performed bilaterally from the tongue following transcranial magnetic cortex (TCS) and nerve stimulation (TNS) to characterize the activated corticonuclear pathways and to obtain normative data for a diagnostic use. TCS over the face-associated motor cortex with 1.3 times the response threshold for relaxed muscles produced bilateral tongue responses with similar latencies and amplitudes for ipsi-(8.3 +/- 1.1 ms, 1.3 +/- 0.7 mV) and contralateral responses (8.5 +/- 1.0 ms, 1.7 +/- 0.8 mV, n = 20, 10 subjects). In individual subjects maximal ipsilateral and contralateral responses were elicited by stimulation over about the same cortex area which lay 2-4 cm lateral and 0-2 cm anterior to the center of the hand motor representation area. Magnetic stimulation of the hypoglossal nerve with 70% of the maximal stimulator output and a circular coil placed over the posterior lateral skull produced a more proximal nerve excitation than electrical stimulation at the mandible, as reflected by the response latencies (3.4 +/- 0.9 ms vs. 2.1 +/- 0.7 ms). The effect of magnetic TNS was independent of the direction of the coil currents. Central motor latencies as calculated by subtracting the response latencies after TNS from the overall latency after TCS were 4.8 +/- 1.2 ms and 5.0 +/- 1.1 ms for ipsi- and contralateral responses, respectively. The findings suggest the existence of a direct and fast conducting connection between motor cortex and brainstem tongue motor nuclei on both sides in man.