Sensory perception of TMS trains and single pulse TMS probes
auditory loudness, t(15, pain
To better understand how well matched the sensory experiences were between active and sham TMS train conditions, we compared the perceptual ratings (Fig. S3) using paired t-tests. These nine tests were corrected for multiple comparisons, resulting in an adjusted α of 0.0056. With respect to isolated active vs. sham TMS trains, we observed no statistical differences in loudness perception (t(15) = 3.8776, p = 0.0015), pain (t(15) = 1.0274, p = 0.3205), or scalp sensation (t(15) = 3.0138, p = 0.0087). When testing the perception of the probe pulses following active vs. sham TMS trains, we observed no effects across all conditions, including loudness perception (early probe, t(15) = 2.6112, p = 0.0197; late probe, (t(15) = 2.3342, p = 0.0339), scalp sensation (early probe, t(15) = 3.0138, p = 0.0186; late probe, t(15) = 2.893, p = 0.112), and pain (early probe, t(15) = 2.9084, p = 0.0108; late probe, t(15) = 3.0382, p = 0.0083)). The only comparison that resulted in statistically significant differences was loudness perception between active and sham TMS trains (t(15) = 3.8776, p = 0.0015), indicating that the active TMS trains were perceived to be louder than the sham trains. These results suggest that the perception of scalp feeling and pain were relatively well matched between active and sham conditions, that auditory loudness perception was indistinguishable across different probe latencies within train conditions, but that loudness perception was unmatched between active and sham TMS trains.