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A Comparative Approach for Quantitative Cell Counting Studies in Widely Different Mammalian Brains

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Changes in cortical plasticity across the lifespan.

Catarina Freitas¹, Jennifer Perez, Mark Knobel

¹Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Division of Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA.

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

|April 27, 2011

Summary

Aging impairs brain plasticity, reducing the effectiveness of cortical plasticity mechanisms. This study shows that older adults experience less suppression from continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS), potentially contributing to motor and cognitive decline.

Keywords:

aging continuous theta-burst stimulation cortical plasticity long-term depression motor cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation

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Published on: August 11, 2019

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Human aging research
Motor control

Background:

Age-related decline in motor and cognitive functions is well-documented but its underlying causes are not fully understood.
Animal studies link neurocognitive changes to altered synaptic plasticity, including long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD).
Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques offer in vivo measurement of human cortical plasticity mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of aging on cortical plasticity mechanisms in humans.
To examine how continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) affects cortico-spinal excitability across different age groups.
To determine if age-related brain changes influence the efficacy of cTBS.

Main Methods:

Thirty-six healthy participants aged 19-81 years underwent cTBS of the motor cortex.
Cortico-spinal excitability was measured using motor evoked potentials (MEPs) before and after cTBS.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used for morphometric analysis to account for brain atrophy and scalp-to-brain distance.

Main Results:

Advancing age negatively correlated with the duration and overall amount of corticomotor suppression induced by cTBS.
Older adults showed a positive correlation with the maximal suppression amplitude of motor evoked responses.
Findings were consistent across two international study sites and not explained by age-related brain atrophy or altered scalp-to-brain distance.

Conclusions:

Cortical plasticity mechanisms are altered with aging, showing decreased efficiency across the human lifespan.
Reduced efficiency of cortical plasticity may significantly contribute to age-associated motor and cognitive decline.
This study provides empirical evidence for age-related alterations in the brain's capacity for plasticity.