RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Heritability of Intracortical Inhibition and Facilitation
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 8897
OP 8900
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2112-09.2009
VO 29
IS 28
A1 Maria Concetta Pellicciari
A1 Domenica Veniero
A1 Cristina Marzano
A1 Fabio Moroni
A1 Cornelia Pirulli
A1 Giuseppe Curcio
A1 Michele Ferrara
A1 Carlo Miniussi
A1 Paolo Maria Rossini
A1 Luigi De Gennaro
YR 2009
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/28/8897.abstract
AB The present twin study investigates heritability of motor cortex excitability, measured by the paired pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation technique. Specifically, intracortical facilitation (ICF) and inhibition (ICI) and corticospinal excitability were tested in monozygotic (MZ), dizygotic (DZ), and unrelated pairs (UP). Robust ICF and ICI effects were found, with a higher similarity of MZ than DZ and UP pairs. Heritability estimates (h2) were 0.80 for ICI and 0.92 for ICF. However, corticospinal excitability did not show significant differences between MZ and DZ pairs, whereas both significantly differed from UP. Hence, the study provides—for the first time—a clear evidence of heritable individual differences in motor cortex excitability.