Stimulation-induced within-representation and across-representation plasticity in human motor cortex

The human motor cortex contains a dynamic and distributed network of motor representations. Formation, maintenance, and modification of these representations is an activity-driven process. Repeated stimulation of one representation results in increased motor output from this representation, a process referred to as "within-representation plasticity." We showed previously that within-representation plasticity of the upper arm representation occurs when repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is delivered to that representation during transient ischemic nerve block (INB) of the contralateral hand. INB reduces inhibition in the motor cortex and thus lowers the threshold for stimulation-induced plasticity. Here we studied the effects of rTMS delivered to nearby body part representations on the motor output from the upper arm representation. Six healthy subjects underwent INB-alone (control), or INB plus 30 min of focal 0.1 Hz rTMS of either the face, hand, arm, leg, or overlap arm/hand representations in motor cortex. INB-alone and rTMS of the leg representation resulted in only a short-lasting (< 20 min) increase in motor output from the arm representation, as measured by motor evoked potentials in the biceps. rTMS of arm and arm/hand representations induced a prolonged (> 60 min) within-representation increase. In contrast, rTMS of face or hand representations canceled the short-lasting increase and even led to a long-lasting decrease of motor output from the arm representation. Therefore, rTMS of the experimentally disinhibited motor cortex induces within-representation increase, and across-representation decrease of motor cortical output. This bidirectional plasticity might be used for purposeful modulation of human cortical function.