Data for: Enhanced action performance following TMS manipulation of associative plasticity in ventral premotor-motor pathway

The study shows the effect of a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocol -- i.e., the cortico-cortical Paired Associative Stimulation (ccPAS) -- aimed at strengthening connections between the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and the primary motor cortex (M1). We administered ccPAS in healthy humans and found that ccPAS aimed at strengthening the PMv-to-M1 pathway improved performance on a task based on object-oriented hand actions (i.e., the 9 hole peg test, 9-HPT). Behavioral improvements correlated with interindividual differences in motor excitability. No effect was found on a visuomotor control task (i.e., the cRT) or when administering two control ccPAS protocols. Dataset includes: demographic data (age, gender), neurophysiological data (TMS intensity as indexed by: resting motor threshold, intensity of PMv stimulation, MEP1mV), and behavioral data (9-HPT execution time, cRTs task-RTs, cRTs task-accuracy) in the three experimental groups.