Abstract
(1) Background: Afferent inhibition is the attenuation of the muscle response evoked from transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) by a prior conditioning electrical stimulus to a peripheral nerve. It is unclear whether the magnitude of afferent inhibition relates to sensation and movement; (2) Methods: 24 healthy, young adults were tested. Short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) and long-latency afferent inhibition (LAI) were obtained following median and digital nerve stimulation. Temporal tactile acuity was assessed with a temporal order judgement (TOJ) task, spatial tactile acuity was assessed using a grating orientation task (GOT), and fine manual dexterity was assessed with the Pegboard task; (3) Results: Correlation analyses revealed no association between the magnitude of SAI or LAI with performance on the TOJ, GOT, or Pegboard tasks; (4) Conclusion: The magnitude of SAI and LAI does not relate to performance on the sensory and motor tasks tested. Future studies are needed to better understand whether the afferent inhibition phenomenon relates to human behavior.
Highlights
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a widely used non-invasive tool for investigating the physiology of the sensorimotor system
This suggests that the grating orientation task (GOT), temporal order judgement (TOJ) and Pegboard tasks are not appropriate proxies for assessing afferent inhibition
The tasks chosen for this study did not prove to be behavioral correlates of short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) and latency afferent inhibition (LAI), there may be other existing sensory and/or motor tasks that demonstrate otherwise
Summary
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a widely used non-invasive tool for investigating the physiology of the sensorimotor system. When TMS is preceded by the electrical stimulation of a peripheral nerve, the MEP from the target muscle is reduced. This effect is called afferent inhibition and is detected at short (~24 ms) or long (~200 ms) intervals between the electrical stimulation of the peripheral nerve and the single pulse of TMS. These phases are respectively known as short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) and long-latency afferent inhibition (LAI) [1]. For a comprehensive review on the parameters that modulate afferent inhibition and the underlying neurophysiology of this phenomenon, see Turco et al [9]
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