Are recognition deficits following occipital lobe TMS explained by raised detection thresholds?

It is known that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) administered over the occipital pole suppresses recognition of visual objects. Our aim was to ascertain whether this suppression can be interpreted as a change in visual contrast threshold. Four subjects detected the orientation of an U- shaped hook flashed for 21 ms. Under control conditions, mean contrast threshold was found at 0.88 log units Weber contrast. Thresholds were raised if TMS was applied 40-200 ms after the visual stimulus. Maximum elevation was 1.67 log units under TMS at 120 ms stimulus onset asynchrony. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a reduction in signal-to-noise ratio of the visual stimuli by TMS, which can be compensated for by increasing the contrast of the stimuli. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved