SUMMARY

Recent studies indicate that neural plasticity may contribute to functional recovery after a stroke and long-term potentiation (LTP) has been regarded as a contributor to motor learning because it strengthens excitatory synapses. Paired associative stimulation (PAS) is an intervention that repeatedly applies transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with conditioned peripheral stimulation. In conventional PAS, electrical stimulation is used as the peripheral stimulation. It is known that only at the appropriate inter-stimulus interval (ISI) between them, LTP is induced in the human motor cortex. To effectively induce LTP, PAS must be repeatedly applied with an appropriate ISI. Despite promising features of PAS, tight time synchronization constraint in PAS and large variability in effective ISI among individuals still remain problems.
In this study, the combination of TMS and mechanical stimulation is used for PAS. In order to characterize and understand mPAS, this research focuses on 1) development of a mechanical stimulation platform that enables the PAS intervention to induce neural facilitation in more repeatable ways, 2) characterization of ISI profiles in the mPAS for each individual, 3) development of an automated ISI tuning system for mPAS and 4) development of a dynamic human response model for mPAS.