title: Enhanced motor cortex facilitation in patients with vascular cognitive impairment-no dementia.
abstract: Data on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) derived measures of cortical excitability and intracortical circuits in age-related white matter changes are scarce. We aimed to assess early changes of motor cortex excitability in nondemented elderly patients with subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SVD). Ten SVD elderly and ten age-matched controls underwent paired-pulse TMS for the analysis of intracortical inhibition (ICI) and facilitation (ICF). All subjects performed neuropsychological assessment and brain magnetic resonance imaging. SVD patients showed abnormal executive control function. No statistically significant differences were found for resting motor threshold, cortical silent period between SVD patients and controls or between the two hemispheres, in patients. A significant enhancement of mean ICF was observed in SVD patients. This study provides the first evidence of functional changes in intracortical excitatory neuronal circuits in patients with SVD and clinical features of vascular cognitive impairment-no dementia. Further studies are required to evaluate whether the observed change of ICF might predict cognitive and/or motor impairment in a population at risk for subcortical vascular dementia.
authors.affiliation: Department GF Ingrassia, Section of Neurosciences, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia, 78, 95123 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bella
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferri
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pennisi
authors.forename: Mariagiovanna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cantone
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lanza
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Malaguarnera
authors.forename: Concetto
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spampinato
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alagona
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pennisi
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003710:Demography; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation