title: Latency jump of "relaxed" versus "contracted" motor evoked potentials as a marker of cortico-spinal maturation.
abstract: Magnetic brain stimulation was carried out in 17 children, aged from 2 to 12 years, in order to investigate the latency difference between relaxed and contracted motor evoked potentials (MEPs) as a function of age. While the latency of contracted MEPs increased in a linear fashion with age and body size, the relaxed MEP latency had a much slower "maturation," which gained the adult value at about 10-12 years of age in parallel with the acquisition of manual skills. The age-related variation of this "latency jump" appears to be a specific indicator of maturative phenomena relating to motor systems.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Caramia
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Desiato
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cicinelli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Iani
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Rossini
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008280:Magnetics; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D009126:Muscle Relaxation / Q000502:physiology; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis