Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43/b, 07100, Sassari, Italy.
IRCCS San Camillo, Via Alberoni, 70, Venice, Italy.
Cerebellum. 2024 Jun;23(3):1121-1127. doi: 10.1007/s12311-023-01622-5. Epub 2023 Oct 28.
The cerebellum receives and integrates a large amount of sensory information that is important for motor coordination and learning. The aim of the present work was to investigate whether peripheral nerve and cerebellum paired associative stimulation (cPAS) could induce plasticity in both the cerebellum and the cortex. In a cross-over design, we delivered right median nerve electrical stimulation 25 or 10 ms before applying transcranial magnetic stimulation over the cerebellum. We assessed changes in motor evoked potentials (MEP), somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP), short-afferent inhibition (SAI), and cerebellum-brain inhibition (CBI) immediately, and 30 min after cPAS. Our results showed a significant reduction in CBI 30 minutes after cPAS, with no discernible changes in MEP, SEP, and SAI. Notably, cPAS10 did not produce any modulatory effects on these parameters. In summary, cPAS25 demonstrated the capacity to induce plasticity effects in the cerebellar cortex, leading to a reduction in CBI. This novel intervention may be used to modulate plasticity mechanisms and motor learning in healthy individuals and patients with neurological conditions.
小脑接收和整合大量的感觉信息，这些信息对于运动协调和学习非常重要。本研究的目的是探讨周围神经和小脑联合刺激（cPAS）是否可以诱导小脑和皮层的可塑性。在交叉设计中，我们在小脑上进行经颅磁刺激之前，分别以 25 或 10ms 的间隔给予右侧正中神经电刺激。我们在 cPAS 后即刻和 30 分钟评估运动诱发电位（MEP）、体感诱发电位（SEP）、短传入抑制（SAI）和小脑-脑抑制（CBI）的变化。结果显示，cPAS 后 30 分钟 CBI 显著降低，而 MEP、SEP 和 SAI 没有明显变化。值得注意的是，cPAS10 对这些参数没有产生任何调节作用。综上所述，cPAS25 能够诱导小脑皮层的可塑性效应，导致 CBI 降低。这种新的干预措施可能用于调节健康个体和神经疾病患者的可塑性机制和运动学习。
