Latency jump of “relaxed” versus “contracted” motor evoked potentials as a marker of cortico-spinal maturation

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Magnetic brain stimulation was carried out in 17 children, agen from 2 to 12 years, in order to investigate the latency difference between relaxed and contracted motor evoked potentials (MEPs) as a function of age. While the latency of contracted MEPs increased in a linear fashion with age and body size, the relaxed MEP latency had a much slower “maturation,” which gained the adult value at about 10–12 years of age in parallel with the acquisition of manual skills. The age-related variation of this “latency jump” appears to be a specific indicator of maturative phenomena relating to motor systems.