Focal cortical plasticity in patients with high-grade stenosis of the internal carotid artery

Introduction: Beside increased risk of ipsihemispherical stroke, severe stenosis of the internal carotid artery (ICA) has shown mild decline of cognitive functions in some studies (1). Here we investigated the influence of severe ICA-stenosis on motor cortex plasticity. Cortical plasticity was measured with the well established protocol of paired associative stimulation (PASN20) using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and peripheral electrical stimulation (2). PASN20 can induce long-term-potentiation (LTP)-like plasticity in the primary motor cortex. Previous studies could show that motor learning is media…