Spinal excitability is enhanced by transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex in children and adolescents

IF 2 Q3 NEUROSCIENCES

Clinical Neurophysiology Practice Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1016/j.cnp.2025.06.009

Essi J. Marttinen Rossi , Päivi Nevalainen , Jussi Toppila , Helena Mäenpää , Jessica Guzmán-López , Harri Piitulainen , Leena Lauronen

{"title":"Spinal excitability is enhanced by transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex in children and adolescents","authors":"Essi J. Marttinen Rossi , Päivi Nevalainen , Jussi Toppila , Helena Mäenpää , Jessica Guzmán-López , Harri Piitulainen , Leena Lauronen","doi":"10.1016/j.cnp.2025.06.009","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>To investigate the modulation of spinal excitability to sub-motor threshold transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy children and adolescents.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We paired sub-motor threshold TMS (conditioning) with electrical tibial nerve stimulation (test) to assess changes in the soleus H-reflex at eleven conditioning-test (C-T) intervals. Eleven participants (7.5–16.2 years) were studied under three conditions: rest, voluntary agonist activation (ankle plantar flexion), and voluntary antagonist activation (ankle dorsiflexion).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>TMS-induced supraspinal volley facilitated the soleus H-reflex amplitude significantly during rest and agonist activation, but not during antagonist activation. The facilitation of H-reflex was similar during rest and agonist activation between C-T intervals from –2 ms (i.e. peripheral stimulation before cortical) to +18 ms (i.e. cortical stimulation before peripheral). Specific to rest condition, a later facilitation occurred at C-T intervals of approximately +60 ms.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Spinal excitability modulation in children and adolescents showed similarities to earlier evidence in adults, with the distinction that, unlike in the adults, agonist activity did not further enhance the supraspinal facilitation of the H-reflex compared to the rest condition in children.</div></div><div><h3>Significance</h3><div>These results provide insight into the maturation of motor control and regulation of spinal excitability, offering possibilities to identify typical and atypical developmental trajectories.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45697,"journal":{"name":"Clinical Neurophysiology Practice","volume":"10 ","pages":"Pages 278-285"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Clinical Neurophysiology Practice","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2467981X25000332","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the modulation of spinal excitability to sub-motor threshold transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy children and adolescents.

Methods

We paired sub-motor threshold TMS (conditioning) with electrical tibial nerve stimulation (test) to assess changes in the soleus H-reflex at eleven conditioning-test (C-T) intervals. Eleven participants (7.5–16.2 years) were studied under three conditions: rest, voluntary agonist activation (ankle plantar flexion), and voluntary antagonist activation (ankle dorsiflexion).

Results

TMS-induced supraspinal volley facilitated the soleus H-reflex amplitude significantly during rest and agonist activation, but not during antagonist activation. The facilitation of H-reflex was similar during rest and agonist activation between C-T intervals from –2 ms (i.e. peripheral stimulation before cortical) to +18 ms (i.e. cortical stimulation before peripheral). Specific to rest condition, a later facilitation occurred at C-T intervals of approximately +60 ms.

Conclusions

Spinal excitability modulation in children and adolescents showed similarities to earlier evidence in adults, with the distinction that, unlike in the adults, agonist activity did not further enhance the supraspinal facilitation of the H-reflex compared to the rest condition in children.

Significance

These results provide insight into the maturation of motor control and regulation of spinal excitability, offering possibilities to identify typical and atypical developmental trajectories.

查看原文本刊更多论文

脊髓兴奋性增强经颅磁刺激运动皮层在儿童和青少年

目的探讨经颅磁刺激（TMS）对健康儿童和青少年脊髓兴奋性的调节作用。方法将亚运动阈值TMS（条件反射）与胫神经电刺激（测试）配对，观察11次条件反射测试（C-T）间隔时比目鱼h反射的变化。11名参与者（7.5-16.2岁）在三种条件下进行了研究：休息，自愿激动剂激活（踝关节足底屈曲）和自愿拮抗剂激活（踝关节背屈）。结果stms诱导的棘上截射在休息和激动剂激活时显著促进比目鱼h反射振幅，而在拮抗剂激活时无明显促进作用。从-2 ms（外周刺激前皮层刺激）到+18 ms（外周刺激前皮层刺激）的C-T间隔中，休息和激动剂激活时h反射的促进作用相似。结论：儿童和青少年的脊髓兴奋性调节与成人的早期证据相似，不同的是，与儿童的休息条件相比，激动剂活性并没有进一步增强h反射的棘上促进作用。这些结果为运动控制和脊髓兴奋性调节的成熟提供了见解，为识别典型和非典型发育轨迹提供了可能性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Clinical Neurophysiology Practice NEUROSCIENCES-

CiteScore

3.90

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

71 days

期刊介绍： Clinical Neurophysiology Practice (CNP) is a new Open Access journal that focuses on clinical practice issues in clinical neurophysiology including relevant new research, case reports or clinical series, normal values and didactic reviews. It is an official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology and complements Clinical Neurophysiology which focuses on innovative research in the specialty. It has a role in supporting established clinical practice, and an educational role for trainees, technicians and practitioners.