Plasticity of the brain is an increasingly important topic in many areas of neuroscience including development, learning and repair. It is still a challenge to study plasticity directly in the human nervous system. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), however, has become a suitable non-invasive and painless technique, which can be applied to detect changes in cortical excitability or connectivity as indicators of plasticity. Further, TMS can be used to induce short-lasting virtual lesions in order to test the functional relevance of brain plasticity. Finally, TMS can induce plasticity itself. In this book, we utilize TMS in these ways to investigate and manipulate plasticity in the human nervous system. In so doing, we have been fortunate to gather many of the world's leading contributors in this field.

The basic nature and mechanisms of plasticity are tackled in the introductory chapter, with particular reference to the animal primary motor cortex. This is followed in the next chapter by an introduction to the technique and physiological effects of human TMS.

In the next section we then apply this background to TMS studies of plasticity in healthy subjects. Chapter 3 is about developmental plasticity of the human corticospinal tract. The next two chapters demonstrate the maintained capability of the adult human brain for plastic change by looking into TMS studies of use-dependent plasticity and learning of motor skills. Finally, the induction of plasticity by TMS itself is the focus of Chapter 6.