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Increasing the frequency of peripheral component in paired associative stimulation strengthens its efficacy

Paired associative stimulation (PAS), a combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS), is emerging as a promising tool for alleviation of motor deficits in neurological disorders. The effectiveness and feasibility of PAS protocols are essential for th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tolmacheva, Aleksandra, Mäkelä, Jyrki P., Shulga, Anastasia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6405762/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30846765
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40474-0
Descripción
Sumario:Paired associative stimulation (PAS), a combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS), is emerging as a promising tool for alleviation of motor deficits in neurological disorders. The effectiveness and feasibility of PAS protocols are essential for their use in clinical practice. Plasticity induction by conventional PAS can be variable and unstable. Protocols effective in challenging clinical conditions are needed. We have shown previously that PAS employing 50 Hz PNS enhances motor performance in chronic spinal cord injury patients and induces robust motor-evoked potential (MEP) potentiation in healthy subjects. Here we investigated whether the effectiveness of PAS can be further enhanced. Potentiation of MEPs up to 60 minutes after PAS with PNS frequencies of 25, 50, and 100 Hz was tested in healthy subjects. PAS with 100 Hz PNS was more effective than 50 (P = 0.009) and 25 Hz (P = 0.016) protocols. Moreover, when administered for 3 days, PAS with 100 Hz led to significant MEP potentiation on the 3(rd) day (P = 0.043) even when the TMS target was selected suboptimally (modelling cases where finding an optimal site for TMS is problematic due to a neurological disease). PAS with 100 Hz PNS is thus effective and feasible for clinical applications.