Redondo-Camós María, Cattaneo Gabriele, Alviarez-Schulze Vanessa, Delgado-Gallén Selma, España-Irla Goretti, Solana-Sanchez Javier, Perellón-Alfonso Ruben, Albu Sergiu, Tormos José M, Pascual-Leone Alvaro, Bartres-Faz David
Institut Guttmann, Institut Universitari de Neurorehabilitació adscrit a la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Departament de Medicina, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 28;13:998062. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998062. eCollection 2022.
Excitability of the primary motor cortex measured with TMS has been associated with cognitive dysfunctions in patient populations. However, only a few studies have explored this relationship in healthy adults, and even fewer have considered the role of biological sex.
Ninety-seven healthy middle-aged adults (53 male) completed a TMS protocol and a neuropsychological assessment. Resting Motor Threshold (RMT) and Long-Interval Intracortical Inhibition (LICI) were assessed in the left motor cortex and related to attention, episodic memory, working memory, reasoning, and global cognition composite scores to evaluate the relationship between cortical excitability and cognitive functioning.
In the whole sample, there was a significant association between LICI and cognition; specifically, higher motor inhibition was related to better working memory performance. When the sample was broken down by biological sex, LICI was only associated with working memory, reasoning, and global cognition in men. No associations were found between RMT and cognitive functions.
Greater intracortical inhibition, measured by LICI, could be a possible marker of working memory in healthy middle-aged adults, and biological sex plays a critical role in this association.
用经颅磁刺激（TMS）测量的初级运动皮层兴奋性与患者群体的认知功能障碍有关。然而，只有少数研究在健康成年人中探讨了这种关系，而且考虑生物性别的研究更少。
97名健康中年成年人（53名男性）完成了一项TMS方案和一项神经心理学评估。在左侧运动皮层评估静息运动阈值（RMT）和长时程皮层内抑制（LICI），并将其与注意力、情景记忆、工作记忆、推理和整体认知综合评分相关联，以评估皮层兴奋性与认知功能之间的关系。
在整个样本中，LICI与认知之间存在显著关联；具体而言，较高的运动抑制与较好的工作记忆表现相关。当按生物性别对样本进行分类时，LICI仅与男性的工作记忆、推理和整体认知相关。未发现RMT与认知功能之间存在关联。
通过LICI测量的更强皮层内抑制可能是健康中年成年人工作记忆的一个可能标志，并且生物性别在这种关联中起关键作用。
