Modulation of movement-related intracortical inhibition (SICI) in acute stroke predicts motor recovery after one year

Introduction: It has been proposed that changes of intracortical inhibition (ICI) contribute to reorganization of motor circuits following stroke. However, it is not known how movement-related ICI changes in the early days after stroke and whether early modifications of ICI contribute to long-term motor recovery. Methods: Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we investigated GABAergic short-interval ICI (SICI) in the ipsilesional primary motor cortex (M1) of patients with acute subcortical stroke (n=11; 63.2±3.0 years) and in the left hemisphere of right-handed healthy control subjects (n=9; 65.2±1.4). SICI w…