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. 2008 May 22;586(Pt 14):3385–3404. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2008.153288

Figure 6. Cortical silent period in masseteric motor cortex.

Figure 6

The box plots show mean SP duration measured in the contralateral (cMM, white boxes) and ipsilateral (iMM, grey boxes) masseter muscle of 5 subjects who were studied in 3 different conditions (coil 120 deg – MEP 0.5 mV; coil 120 deg – MEP 1 mV; coil 30 deg – MEP 0.5 mV) in which coil orientation or test pulse intensity was changed. SP duration was in all conditions not significantly different between sides. With the optimal coil orientation for MM (120 deg), SP duration increased with increasing the test pulse intensity. Changing the coil orientation from 120 deg to 30 deg, a further increase of SP duration was observed. Note that the pulse intensity used to obtain a 0.5 mV MEP with the coil orientated at 30 deg was comparable to the intensity able to evoke a 1 mV MEP with the coil orientated at 120 deg. Error bars represent standard error of the mean.