Interhemispheric asymmetry of corticomotor excitability after chronic cerebellar infarcts

Suzete Nascimento Farias Da Guarda, Leonardo G. Cohen, Marco Da Cunha Pinho, Fábio Iuji Yamamoto, Paulo Eurípedes Marchiori, Milberto Scaff, Adriana Bastos Conforto

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Early after stroke, there is loss of intracortical facilitation (ICF) and increase in short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) in the primary motor cortex (M1) contralateral to a cerebellar infarct. Our goal was to investigate intracortical M1 function in the chronic stage following cerebellar infarcts (>4 months). We measured resting motor threshold (rMT), SICI, ICF, and ratios between motor-evoked potential amplitudes (MEP) and supramaximal M response amplitudes (MEP/M; %), after transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied to the M1 contralateral (M1contralesional) and ipsilateral (M1 ipsilesional) to the cerebellar infarct in patients and to both M1s of healthy age-matched volunteers. SICI was decreased in M1 contralesional compared to M1ipsilesional in the patient group in the absence of side-to-side differences in controls. There were no significant interhemispheric or between-group differences in rMT, ICF, or MEP/M (%). Our results document disinhibition of M1contralesional in the chronic phase after cerebellar stroke.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)398-404
Number of pages7
JournalCerebellum
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2010

Keywords

  • Cerebellar disease
  • Paired pulse
  • Stroke
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neurology
  • Clinical Neurology

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