Dose-response curve of associative plasticity in human motor cortex and interactions with motor practice

Associative plasticity is hypothesized to be an important neurophysiological correlate of memory formation and learning with potentials for applications in neurorehabilitation and for the development of new electrophysiological measures to study disorders of cortical plasticity. We hypothesized that the magnitude of the paired associative stimulation (PAS)-induced long-term potentiation (LTP)-like effect depends on the number of pairs in the PAS protocol. We also hypothesized that homeostatic interaction of PAS with subsequent motor learning is related to the magnitude of the PAS-induced LTP-like effect. We studied 10 healthy subjects. In experiment 1a, subjects received 90 (PAS90), 180 (PAS180), or 270 (PAS270) pairs of stimuli, followed by a dynamic motor practice (DMP) 1 h after the end of the PAS protocols. In experiment 1b, the DMP preceded the PAS protocol. In experiment 2, the time course of PAS270 was studied. We found that PAS270 resulted in greater increase in motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude compared with protocols with fewer pairs of stimuli. Moreover, the interaction between PAS protocols with motor learning differed depending on the number of stimulus pairs used to induce PAS. While DMP alone increased MEP amplitudes, DMP during the LTP-like effects induced by PAS270 led to a long-term depression (LTD)-like effect (homeostatic interaction). This homeostatic interaction did not occur after PAS90 and PAS180. In conclusion, we found a dose-dependent effect of the number of stimulus pairs used in the PAS protocol on cortical plasticity. Homeostatic interaction between PAS and DMP was observed only after PAS270.