The associative brain at work: Evidence from paired associative stimulation studies in humans

A Suppa; A Quartarone; H Siebner; R Chen; V Di Lazzaro; P Del Giudice; Walter Paulus; J C Rothwell; U Ziemann; J Classen

doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2017.08.003

The associative brain at work: Evidence from paired associative stimulation studies in humans

Clin Neurophysiol. 2017 Nov;128(11):2140-2164. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2017.08.003. Epub 2017 Sep 5.

Authors

A Suppa¹, A Quartarone², H Siebner³, R Chen⁴, V Di Lazzaro⁵, P Del Giudice⁶, Walter Paulus⁷, J C Rothwell⁸, U Ziemann⁹, J Classen¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; IRCCS Neuromed Institute, Pozilli, IS, Italy. Electronic address: antonio.suppa@uniroma1.it.
² Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Italy; IRCCS Centro Neurolesi 'Bonino Pulejo', Messina, Italy.
³ Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark; Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴ Krembil Research Institute and Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Unit of Neurology, Neurophysiology, Neurobiology, Department of Medicine, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
⁶ Italian Institute of Health, Rome, Italy; INFN, Rome, Italy.
⁷ Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Medical Centre Göttingen, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
⁸ Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, UK.
⁹ Department of Neurology & Stroke, and Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Eberhard-Karls University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
¹⁰ Department of Neurology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.

PMID: 28938144
DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2017.08.003

Abstract

The original protocol of Paired Associative Stimulation (PAS) in humans implies repetitive cortical and peripheral nerve stimuli, delivered at specific inter-stimulus intervals, able to elicit non-invasively long-term potentiation (LTP)- and long-term depression (LTD)-like plasticity in the human motor cortex. PAS has been designed to drive cortical LTP/LTD according to the Hebbian rule of associative plasticity. Over the last two decades, a growing number of researchers have increasingly used the PAS technique to assess cortical associative plasticity in healthy humans and in patients with movement disorders and other neuropsychiatric diseases. The present review covers the physiology, pharmacology, pathology and motor effects of PAS. Further sections of the review focus on new protocols of "modified PAS" and possible future application of PAS in neuromorphic circuits designed for brain-computer interface.

Keywords: Paired associative stimulation; Plasticity; Primary motor cortex; STDP.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Association*
Brain / physiology*
Electric Stimulation / methods*
Humans
Neuronal Plasticity / physiology*