Increased facilitation of the primary motor cortex in de novo Parkinson's disease

Introduction: Paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is useful to estimate the balance between inhibitory and facilitatory circuits of the primary motor cortex (M1) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Results of earlier studies are, however, incongruent: some reports describe normal short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), but others describe reduced SICI. We hypothesize that exaggerated intracortical facilitation masks normal inhibition, and that a triple-pulse method can reveal masked inhibition in PD.

Methods: Ten PD patients who had not been exposed to dopaminergic medications were enrolled. Results were compared with those obtained from 10 age-matched healthy volunteers. We measured TMS-elicited motor evoked potential (MEP) as an index of M1 excitability. We tested SICI, intracortical facilitation (ICF), and short-interval intracortical facilitation (SICF), which has three distinct facilitatory peaks, using the paired-pulse TMS paradigm. A triple-pulse protocol, SICI + SICF, was investigated as described in our earlier study. This protocol examined SICF in the presence of SICI, thereby allowing our test of true inhibitory influence on a specific component of MEP-generating mechanism known as I3 wave.

Results: In PD patients, SICI estimated using the conventional method was decreased, whereas SICF was enhanced around its second peak out of the three. Results for SICI + SICF were comparable between PD patients and healthy controls, suggesting normal inhibition of I3 waves in PD patients.

Conclusion: We confirmed the SICF enhancement in drug naïve PD patients. We propose that I3 wave inhibition by a subthreshold pulse shown by SICI paradigm is unaffected in PD. The triple-pulse method can reveal masked inhibition.