Visuomotor paired associative stimulation enhances corticospinal excitability in post-stroke patients with upper-limb hemiparesis.

ABSTRACT: We assess the effectiveness of a visuomotor paired associative stimulation (vm-PAS) protocol targeting the Action Observation Network (AON) in chronic post-stroke patients with upper-limb mild hemiparesis. Vm-PAS consisted of hand-grasping action observation stimuli repeatedly paired with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses over the ipsilesional primary motor cortex (M1). Fifteen post-stroke patients underwent a session of the vm-PAS and, as a control, of the standard excitatory PAS (M1-PAS), during which slow-rate electrical stimulation of the paretic limb was paired with M1-TMS. Before and after each PAS, we assessed corticospinal excitability (CSE), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), and paretic wrist's voluntary movements. The two protocols induce distinct muscl

SUBMITTER: Picardi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12046018 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature