Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
Standardized Induction and Assessment of Long-term Potentiation-like Cortical Plasticity Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Published on: November 7, 2025
Reduced motor cortex plasticity following inhibitory rTMS in older adults
Gabrielle Todd1, Thomas E Kimber, Michael C Ridding
1Discipline of Physiology, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia. gabrielle.todd@adelaide.edu.au
Objective:
Ageing is accompanied by diminished practice-dependent plasticity. We investigated the effect of age on another plasticity inducing paradigm, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).
Methods:
Healthy young (n=15; 25+/-4 years) and old (n=15; 67+/-5 years) adults participated in two experiments. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were measured in the target muscle (first dorsal interosseus, FDI) and a remote muscle (abductor digiti minimi) during a set of single stimuli. Subjects then received real or sham inhibitory rTMS (intermittent subthreshold trains of 6Hz stimulation for 10min). MEPs were measured for 30min after rTMS.
Results:
In young adults, MEPs in the target FDI muscle were approximately 15% smaller in the real rTMS experiment than in the sham rTMS experiment (P<0.026). In old adults, FDI MEP size did not differ between experiments.
Conclusions:
Advancing age is associated with reduced efficacy of inhibitory rTMS.
Significance:
This work has important implications for the potential therapeutic use of rTMS in stroke and neurological disease.
