Abstract:Mental disorders, with complex mechanisms, are characterized by high recurrence and high disability rate, while cortical excitation-inhibition imbalance is often present. It is important to develop noninvasive, in-vivo and quantified measures of cortical activity for discovering the underlying mechanism of mental disorders and improving the clinical diagnostic accuracy. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), combined with neurophysiology, has been well established to evaluate cortical excitability and inhibition. We have reviewed new progresses in the measures of cortical activity by TMS, as well as their clinical utility in evaluating cortical function and therapeutic effects of mental disorders.
