Tecchio F, Zappasodi F, Pasqualetti P, Gennaro L De, Pellicciari M C, Ercolani M, Squitti R, Rossini P M
ISTC-CNR, Franca Tecchio, Unità MEG, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Isola Tiberina, 00186 Roma, Italy; Casa di Cura San Raffaele Cassino e IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Italy.
ISTC-CNR, Franca Tecchio, Unità MEG, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Isola Tiberina, 00186 Roma, Italy; AFaR, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Isola Tiberina, Roma, Italy.
Clin Neurophysiol. 2008 Mar;119(3):675-682. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2007.10.023.
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.
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).
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.
A reduction of the PAS-induced M1 plasticity in females after menopause was documented, possibly due to an impairment of intracortical excitatory network activity.
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.
老年人口的增加促使人们对维持学习能力的大脑现象展开更多研究，其中包括类似长时程增强（LTP）的可塑性现象。本研究的目的是描述类似LTP的可塑性对年龄和性别的依赖性。
在50名健康受试者队列中诱导出一种类似LTP的初级运动皮层可塑性，该可塑性通过配对联合刺激（PAS）使运动诱发电位（MEP）对局部经颅磁刺激增强，受试者按性别和年龄组平均分配（25名年轻受试者，平均年龄±标准差 = 29.8 ± 4.5岁；老年受试者61.1 ± 4.1岁）。
老年组静息运动阈值的兴奋性水平升高，基础MEP不依赖于性别或年龄。PAS诱导的初级运动皮层（M1）可塑性兴奋性调制在年轻女性和男性中相似，而仅在女性中随年龄降低。
记录到绝经后女性PAS诱导的M1可塑性降低，可能是由于皮质内兴奋性网络活动受损。
仅在女性中发现类似LTP的可塑性对年龄的依赖性，这提示在解释关于学习能力随年龄变化的行为学研究时需谨慎。
