he electrically elicited blink reflex has been extensively studied to evaluate the trigeminal and facial nerve as well as pathologic process in the brainstem. In some recent neurophysiological examination procedures, the electrical stimulation has being replaced by the magnetic stimulation because the magnetic stimulation is less painful and more tolerable to the patients and also gives almost same results as the electrical stimulation. We studied the blink reflex with 40 normal subjects stimulated both magnetically and electrically to investigate the characteristics of the blink reflex evoked by these two methods and the possibility of whether the painless magnetic stimulation could be used in lieu of the conventional electrical stimulation at clinical setting.

The statistical evaluation of the R1, R2 and R2' latencies of the blink reflex following the magnetic and electrical stimulation did not show any significant difference between these two methods(p>0.05). In addition, almost all subjects who experienced both stimulation methods stated that the magnetic stimulation was much less painful and much easier to tolerate than the electrical stimulation.

In conclusion, these results confirm that the magnetically elicited blink reflex is equivalent to the electrically elicited blink reflex and can be substituted for the conventional technique of electrical stimulation.