"It can be an all too common scenario for certain stroke https survivors. They cant see or recognize anything on one side of their body. This condition often occurs after a stroke https on the right side of the brain https and is typically treated with a combination of physical therapy https and brain https retraining or mental tasks using a pen and paper or computer. This is often not enough to make a meaningful improvement. Now new research in Neurology suggests that stimulating the nerve cells in the brain https with magnet therapy may aid recovery. During transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS a doctor places a large magnetic coil against the patients scalp which creates electric currents to stimulate nerve cells. After a stroke https one side of the brain https can become overactive and its circuits can get overloaded. Enter TMS. This therapy may restore balance between the two sides of the brain. And according to the new study it helps. Ten out of  people who faced this problem following a stroke received the magnet therapy daily for two weeks. The other  received a fake treatment. All participants also did standard brain retraining. Everyone took tests that measured their abilities after the study and then again two weeks later. The tests measured line crossing and figure and shapecopying ability. The tests also measured activities of daily living affected by neglect such as dialing numbers on a phone reading a menu and sorting coins. Overall participants who received the magnet therapy improved by . immediately following treatment and by . two weeks later. There were no improvements seen in test scores of those who got the other treatment. The overactive brain circuits also improved among people who got the TMS treatment the study showed. Researcher Giacomo Koch MD PhD of the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome Italy and colleagues point out that the changes could be the combined effects of the mental tasks and the TMS. Cautious Optimism About Magnet Therapy Stroke specialists and others who are familiar with TMS are cautiously optimistic about the role this treatment may one day play in stroke rehabilitation. This is an intriguing and important study says Ralph L. Sacco MD. He is chairman of the neurology department at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. This work is preliminary he says. TMS is not ready for prime time but this is an important step in the right direction. Patrick Lyden MD says that rehab alone could and should be enough to treat this kind of stroke. He is chairman of the department of neurology at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. If we could get more patients into a good rehab program we wouldnt need fancy stimulation techniques he says. Unfortunately we do. And this is a very novel treatment and very exciting information. Alan Manevitz MD is a psychiatrist https at New York Citys Lenox Hill Hospital. He uses TMS to treat people with depression https including depression https that can follow a stroke. The new study suggests that TMS has tremendous potential in treating stroke https disability he says. It is premature to know whether the transcranial magnetic stimulation will have an impact on clinical treatment says Randolph Marshall MD MS. He is chief of the stroke division of the department of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center and he wrote an editorial to the study. The TMS units are expensive and require specialized training. Nonetheless if it is proven effective in a larger clinical trial https the use of TMS may burgeon he says."