Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireview
The balance of excitation and inhibition plays a key role in plasticity and learning. A frequently used, reliable approach to assess intracortical inhibition relies on measuring paired-pulse behavior. Moreover, recent developments of magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows measuring GABA and glutamat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1235487/full |
| _version_ | 1797741489679237120 |
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| author | Hubert R. Dinse Oliver Höffken Martin Tegenthoff |
| author_facet | Hubert R. Dinse Oliver Höffken Martin Tegenthoff |
| author_sort | Hubert R. Dinse |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The balance of excitation and inhibition plays a key role in plasticity and learning. A frequently used, reliable approach to assess intracortical inhibition relies on measuring paired-pulse behavior. Moreover, recent developments of magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows measuring GABA and glutamate concentrations. We give an overview about approaches employed to obtain information about excitatory states in human participants and discuss their putative relation. We summarize paired-pulse techniques and basic findings characterizing paired-pulse suppression in somatosensory (SI) and (VI) visual areas. Paired-pulse suppression describes the effect of paired sensory stimulation at short interstimulus intervals where the cortical response to the second stimulus is significantly suppressed. Simultaneous assessments of paired-pulse suppression in SI and VI indicated that cortical excitability is not a global phenomenon, but instead reflects the properties of local sensory processing. We review studies using non-invasive brain stimulation and perceptual learning experiments that assessed both perceptual changes and accompanying changes of cortical excitability in parallel. Independent of the nature of the excitation/inhibition marker used these data imply a close relationship between altered excitability and altered performance. These results suggest a framework where increased or decreased excitability is linked with improved or impaired perceptual performance. Recent findings have expanded the potential role of cortical excitability by demonstrating that inhibition markers such as GABA concentrations, paired-pulse suppression or alpha power predict to a substantial degree subsequent perceptual learning outcome. This opens the door for a targeted intervention where subsequent plasticity and learning processes are enhanced by altering prior baseline states of excitability. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:28:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3504b818ae014a959e39dc3ea256d0ad |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:28:10Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-3504b818ae014a959e39dc3ea256d0ad2023-08-17T23:11:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612023-08-011710.3389/fnhum.2023.12354871235487Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireviewHubert R. DinseOliver HöffkenMartin TegenthoffThe balance of excitation and inhibition plays a key role in plasticity and learning. A frequently used, reliable approach to assess intracortical inhibition relies on measuring paired-pulse behavior. Moreover, recent developments of magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows measuring GABA and glutamate concentrations. We give an overview about approaches employed to obtain information about excitatory states in human participants and discuss their putative relation. We summarize paired-pulse techniques and basic findings characterizing paired-pulse suppression in somatosensory (SI) and (VI) visual areas. Paired-pulse suppression describes the effect of paired sensory stimulation at short interstimulus intervals where the cortical response to the second stimulus is significantly suppressed. Simultaneous assessments of paired-pulse suppression in SI and VI indicated that cortical excitability is not a global phenomenon, but instead reflects the properties of local sensory processing. We review studies using non-invasive brain stimulation and perceptual learning experiments that assessed both perceptual changes and accompanying changes of cortical excitability in parallel. Independent of the nature of the excitation/inhibition marker used these data imply a close relationship between altered excitability and altered performance. These results suggest a framework where increased or decreased excitability is linked with improved or impaired perceptual performance. Recent findings have expanded the potential role of cortical excitability by demonstrating that inhibition markers such as GABA concentrations, paired-pulse suppression or alpha power predict to a substantial degree subsequent perceptual learning outcome. This opens the door for a targeted intervention where subsequent plasticity and learning processes are enhanced by altering prior baseline states of excitability.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1235487/fullpaired-pulse behaviorcortical inhibitionplasticityperceptual learningGABA |
| spellingShingle | Hubert R. Dinse Oliver Höffken Martin Tegenthoff Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireview Frontiers in Human Neuroscience paired-pulse behavior cortical inhibition plasticity perceptual learning GABA |
| title | Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireview |
| title_full | Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireview |
| title_fullStr | Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireview |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireview |
| title_short | Cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex: implications for plasticity and learning – a minireview |
| title_sort | cortical excitability in human somatosensory and visual cortex implications for plasticity and learning a minireview |
| topic | paired-pulse behavior cortical inhibition plasticity perceptual learning GABA |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1235487/full |
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