Amphetamine enhances training-induced motor cortex plasticity.

OBJECTIVES

Repetitive synchronized movements lead to short-term plastic changes in the primary motor cortex, which can be assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Drugs which enhance such plastic changes could be of therapeutical interest, e.g. in patients with cerebral lesions.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

We studied the effect of amphetamine on motor performance and plastic changes in the motor cortex as revealed by TMS mapping in healthy humans, who had to train a repetitive synchronized movement over 1 h.

RESULTS

Cortical plastic changes observed after 1 h of training were more pronounced with amphetamine, whereas motor performance did not differ between training sessions with and without amphetamine.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that amphetamine is able to enhance training-induced motor cortex plasticity. This effect could be due to its known influence on the GABAergic and glutamatergic system, but might also result from its role as an indirect catecholaminergic agonist.