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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the long-term stability of water-referenced GABA and Glx neurometabolite concentrations in the sensorimotor cortex using MRS and to assess the long-term stability of GABA- and glutamate-related intracortical excitability using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Healthy individuals underwent two sessions of MRS and TMS at a 3-month interval. A MEGA-PRESS sequence was used at 3 T to acquire MRS signals in the sensorimotor cortex. Metabolites were quantified by basis spectra fitting and metabolite concentrations were derived using unsuppressed water reference scans accounting for relaxation and partial volume effects. TMS was performed using published standards. After performing stability and reliability analyses for MRS and TMS, reliable change indexes were computed for all measures with a statistically significant test–retest correlation. No significant effect of time was found for GABA, Glx and TMS measures. There was an excellent ICC and a strong correlation across time for GABA and Glx. Analysis of TMS measure stability revealed an excellent ICC for rMT CSP and %MSO and a fair ICC for 2 ms SICI. There was no significant correlation between MRS and TMS measures at any time point. This study shows that MRS-GABA and MRS-Glx of the sensorimotor cortex have good stability over a 3-month period, with variability across time comparable to that reported in other brain areas. While resting motor threshold, %MSO and CSP were found to be stable and reliable, other TMS measures had greater variability and lesser reliability.

The purpose of this study was to assess corticospinal excitability of soleus (SOL) and tibialis anterior (TA) at a segmental level during passive ankle movement. Four experimental components were performed to assess the effects of passive ankle movement and muscle length on corticospinal excitability (MEP/Mmax) at different muscle lengths, subcortical excitability at the level of lumbar spinal segments (LEP/Mmax), intracortical inhibition (SICI) and facilitation (ICF), and H-reflex in SOL and TA. In addition, the degree of fascicle length changes between SOL and TA was assessed in a subpopulation during passive ankle movement. Fascicles shortened and lengthened with joint movement during passive shortening and lengthening of SOL and TA to a similar degree (p

Modulation of a Hoffmann (H)-reflex following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used to assess the nature of signals transmitted from cortical centers to lower motor neurons. Further characterizing the recruitment and time-course of the TMS-induced effect onto the soleus H-reflex adds to the discussion of these pathways and may improve its utility in clinical studies. In 10 healthy controls, TMS was used to condition the soleus H-reflex using TMS intensities from 65 to 110% of the resting motor threshold (RMT). Early facilitation [− 5 to − 3 ms condition-test (C-T) interval] was evident when TMS was 110% of RMT (P

Effects of low-threshold afferents from the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) to the extensor carpi radialis (ECR) motoneurons were examined using a post-stimulus time-histogram (PSTH) and electromyogram-averaging (EMG-A) methods in eight healthy human subjects. In the PSTH study in five of the eight subjects, electrical conditioning stimuli (ES) to the median nerve branch innervating FDS with the intensity below the motor threshold induced excitatory effects (facilitation) in 39 out of 92 ECR motor units. In 11 ECR motor units, the central synaptic delay of the facilitation was -0.1 ± 0.3 ms longer than that of the homonymous facilitation of ECR. Mechanical conditioning stimuli (MS) to FDS with the intensity below the threshold of the tendon(T)-wave-induced facilitation in 51 out of 51 ECR motor units. With the EMG-A method, early and significant peaks were produced by ES and MS in all the eight subjects. The difference between latencies of the peaks by ES and MS was almost equivalent to that of the Hoffmann- and T-waves of FDS by ES and MS. The peak was diminished by tonic vibration stimuli to FDS. These findings suggest that a facilitation from FDS to ECR exists in humans and group Ia afferents mediate the facilitation through a monosynaptic path.

We investigated whether rapid changes in visual input or dark adaptation modify primary motor cortex (M1) excitability in healthy subjects. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), consisting of 10 stimuli delivered at 5 Hz at 120% of the resting motor threshold, was delivered over the M1 in 14 healthy volunteers. They were instructed to relax under eyes-open (EO) and eyes-closed (EC) resting conditions. Two experimental sessions were performed. In the first session, subjects were tested under both EO and EC conditions in order to determine whether short visual deprivation affected M1 excitability as tested through changes in the motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitude during rTMS. In the second session, rTMS was delivered both under EO conditions with room lights on and after 30 min of blindfolding to evaluate the effects of prolonged visual deprivation on M1 excitability. Short-term visual deprivation lasting 2.5 s left the MEP facilitation unchanged during the 5-Hz rTMS trains, while 30 min of blindfolding significantly reduced MEP facilitation. Short-term visual deprivation did not significantly affect M1 excitability, whereas dark adaptation reduced rTMS-induced MEP facilitation, modulating motor cortical excitability.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) uses a weak electric current to modulate neuronal activity. A neurophysiologic outcome measure to demonstrate reliable tDCS modulation at the group level is transcranial magnetic stimulation engendered motor evoked potentials (MEPs). Here, we conduct a study testing the reliability of individual MEP response patterns following a common tDCS protocol. Fourteen participants (7m/7f) each underwent nine randomized sessions of 1 mA, 10 min tDCS (3 anode; 3 cathode; 3 sham) delivered using an M1/orbito-frontal electrode montage (sessions separated by an average of ~5.5 days). Fifteen MEPs were obtained prior to, immediately following and in 5 min intervals for 30 min following tDCS. TMS was delivered at 130 % resting motor threshold using neuronavigation to ensure consistent coil localization. A number of non-experimental variables were collected during each session. At the individual level, considerable variability was seen among different testing sessions. No participant demonstrated an excitatory response ≥20 % to all three anodal sessions, and no participant demonstrated an inhibitory response ≥20 % to all three cathodal sessions. Intra-class correlation revealed poor anodal and cathodal test-retest reliability [anode: ICC(2,1) = 0.062; cathode: ICC(2,1) = 0.055] and moderate sham test-retest reliability [ICC(2,1) = 0.433]. Results also revealed no significant effect of tDCS at the group level. Using this common protocol, we found the effects of tDCS on MEP amplitudes to be highly variable at the individual level. In addition, no significant effects of tDCS on MEP amplitude were found at the group level. Future studies should consider utilizing a more strict experimental protocol to potentially account for intra-individual response variations.

International audience; Although a large number of studies have demonstrated that a motor response to a visual stimulus is, at least to some extent, independent of the perceptual response, little eVort has been spent on the investigation of the explicit characteristics of this independency. In the present experiment, observers were presented with an S1-S2 stimulus-pair, with S1 within the threshold range and with S2 highly suprathreshold. S2 was displayed either at the same location as S1 (masked condition), or some degree to the left or right of S1 (non-masked). Both the observers' sensitivity to S1 and simple RTs elicited by the stimulus pair were jointly assessed on a trial-by-trial basis. Response times decreased with increasing S1 contrast for perceptual Hits both when S1 was masked by S2 and when it was not, but for Misses only when S1 was masked, though to a lesser extent than for Hits. When RTs are collapsed across perceptual Hits and Misses for any given S1-contrast, they were independent of whether S1 was masked or not. The data indicate that the motor system has a Wxed, high-energy threshold, whereas the perceptual system has a dЈ-dependent criterion that can either be higher or lower than the motor threshold-depending on the particular conditions.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) appears to have effects on cortical excitability that extend beyond the train of rTMS itself. These effects may be inhibitory or facilitatory and appear to depend on the frequency, intensity, duration and intertrain interval of the rTMS. Many studies assume facilitatory effects of high-frequency rTMS and inhibitory effects of low-frequency rTMS. Nevertheless, the interindividual variability of this modulation of cortical excitability by rTMS has not been systematically investigated. In this study, we applied 240 pulses of rTMS at 90% of the subjects' motor threshold to their motor cortex at different frequencies (1, 10, 15 and 20 Hz) and examined the effects on motor evoked potentials (frequency tuning curve). Although the averaged group data showed a frequency-dependent increase in cortical excitability, each subject had a different pattern of frequency tuning curve, i.e. a different modulatory effect on cortical excitability at different rTMS frequencies. The interindividual variability of these modulatory effects was still high, though less so, when the number of rTMS pulses was increased to 1,600. These findings illustrate the degree of variability of the rTMS effects in the human brain.

Single transcranial magnetic pulsed stimuli were applied over the cortical area of the putative right frontal eye field (FEF) in 11 healthy subjects. An especially designed figure of eight shaped twin coil was used, to focus the stimulus, the strength of which was adjusted to the individual motor threshold of the left hand muscles. Eye positions and movements were recorded by an infrared reflection technique. Three different experiments were performed: 1. Stimulation during different primary gaze position did not evoke any discernible eye movement. 2. Stimulation just prior to visually elicited horizontal saccades did not cause a significant alteration of the latency, velocity, or amplitude of the saccades. 3. Only stimulation during an antisaccade task induced a significant latency prolongation, when the stimulus was applied between 50 to 90 ms after the target flashed up. This latency prolongation was found in all subjects for the antisaccades to the right, with a statistically significant average latency difference of +66 +/- 55.5 ms. In contrast, the antisaccades to the left were prolonged in the female subjects only by an average of +98 +/- 41.8 ms (p = 0.0064), whereas in the male subjects they did not alter with stimulation (average difference: -3 +/- 41.9 ms, p = 0.753). Significant latency prolongations were only obtained when the magnetic FEF stimuli were applied within a vulnerable period, which varied from subject to subject.

The post-stimulus time histogram method was used to measure the time course of the firing probability of voluntarily activated wrist flexors motor units (MUs) after various stimulations. Stimulating the median and the ulnar nerve at an intensity equal to the motor threshold evoked an early increase in firing probability attributed to the monosynaptic Ia EPSP. Reducing the stimulation strength led to the disappearance of this peak and to the appearance of a second peak, whose latency was 3–5 ms longer than that of the monosynaptic peak. It is shown that both group I and cutaneous fibres contribute to the long-latency response but that group I fibres alone are responsible for its onset. Combined stimulation of the same afferents (group I and low threshold cutaneous fibres) reduced the amplitude of the second response. It is argued that this inhibition is exerted onto the interneurones mediating the non-monosynaptic excitation to motoneurones.