Age dependence of primary motor cortex plasticity induced by paired associative stimulation.
Clin Neurophysiol
; 119(3): 675-682, 2008 Mar.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-18178522
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
The increase of elderly population prompted growing research for the understanding of cerebral phenomena sustaining learning abilities, with inclusion of long-term potentiation (LTP)-like plasticity phenomena. Aim of the present study was to characterize LTP-like plasticity dependence on age and gender.METHODS:
A LTP-like primary motor cortex plasticity inducing a potentiation of the motor evoked potential (MEP) to focal transcranial magnetic stimulation as a consequence of a paired associative stimulation (PAS) was induced in a 50 healthy subject cohort, equally distributed for gender and age groups (25 young subjects, mean age+/-SD=29.8+/-4.5 years; elderly 61.1+/-4.1 years).RESULTS:
Resting motor thresholds' excitability level increased in the elderly group, the basal MEP did not depend on gender or age. The PAS-induced primary motor cortex (M1) plastic excitability modulation was similar in young females and males, while it decreased with age in females only.CONCLUSIONS:
A reduction of the PAS-induced M1 plasticity in females after menopause was documented, possibly due to an impairment of intracortical excitatory network activity.SIGNIFICANCE:
A LTP-like plasticity dependence on age was found in female only, suggesting caution in interpreting behavioural studies on learning abilities in dependence on age.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Envelhecimento
/
Potencial Evocado Motor
/
Estimulação Magnética Transcraniana
/
Córtex Motor
/
Plasticidade Neuronal
Tipo de estudo:
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Clin Neurophysiol
Assunto da revista:
NEUROLOGIA
/
PSICOFISIOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2008
Tipo de documento:
Article