Motor cortical plasticity is impaired in Unverricht-Lundborg disease

Patients with Unverricht-Lundborg disease, also referred to as progressive myoclonus epilepsy type 1, exhibit widespread motor symptoms and signs in addition to epileptic seizures, which suggest abnormal excitability of the primary motor pathways. To explore the plasticity of the sensory-motor cortex, we employed a modern neurophysiological method, the paired associative stimulation protocol, which resembles the concept of long-term potentiation of experimental studies. Seven patients with genetically verified Unverricht-Lundborg disease and 13 healthy control subjects were enrolled in the study to characterize cortical sensory-motor plasticity. In the study protocol, peripheral electric median nerve stimulation preceded navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation targeted to the representation area of thenar musculature on the contralateral primary motor cortex. The protocol consisted of 132 transcranial magnetic stimulation trials at 0.2 Hz, preceded by peripheral sensory stimulation at 25 ms. Motor-evoked potential amplitudes were analyzed at baseline and after the paired associative stimulation protocol at an intensity of 130% of the individual motor threshold. The patients with Unverricht-Lundborg disease exhibited an average decrease of 15% in motor-evoked potential amplitudes 30 minutes after paired associative stimulation, whereas in the control subjects, a significant increase (101%) was observed (P < .05), as expected. The results indicate a lack of normal cortical plasticity in Unverricht-Lundborg disease, which stresses the role of abnormal motor cortical functions or sensorimotor integration as possible pathophysiological contributors to the motor symptoms. The impaired cortical plasticity may be associated with the previously reported structural and physiological abnormalities of the primary motor cortex.