Figure 1. Experimental paradigm.

A) Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) response of the ipsilesional motor cortex was assessed in 31 people with stroke over 8 experimental sessions. For the contralesional motor cortex, cTBS response was assessed in 29 people with stroke over 4 experimental sessions. B) Response to cTBS was quantified as a change in MEP amplitude from baseline (left) to post stimulation (right). Pharmacological studies indicate cTBS produces a long-term depression-like response, therefore leading to a decrease in MEP amplitude ²⁶. The decrease of MEP amplitude was used as a measure of plasticity. C) MEPs were recorded using surface EMG from the first dorsal interosseous muscle of the paretic hand (ipsilesional data) or non-paretic hand (contralesional data). D) Experimental paradigm at each session for the ipsilesional data (top) and contralesional data (bottom). B1 and B2 refer to blocks of baseline MEPs. P1, P2, P3 and P4 refer to blocks of MEPs recorded after continuous theta burst stimulation. Note that the differences in post cTBS timepoints for MEP collection reflects standard practice for neurophysiological experiments at each data collection site. This does not influence the analysis of cTBS responses as the modelling accounts for all time points in each participant