The degree of within-block velocity decrement correlated with post-task MEP enhancement, indicating that corticospinal modulation scaled with motor performance deterioration. The authors, affiliated with Sapienza University of Rome, Karolinska Institutet, and IRCCS Neuromed, concluded that sustained repetitive finger tapping induces reversible, state-dependent modulation of corticospinal excitability following physiological motor fatigue. The study characterizes the temporal profile of post-task corticospinal adaptation and offers a translational framework for investigating altered compensatory responses in neurological disorders.
Motor Cortex Excitability Rises Then Falls in the Hour after Finger-Tapping Fatigue
Summary
Researchers at Sapienza University of Rome had 20 healthy young adults complete 10 consecutive blocks of finger tapping, then used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to track motor cortex excitability over the following 60 minutes. Excitability rose after the fatiguing task and drifted back to baseline, and participants whose tapping slowed most showed the largest increases. The findings were published in Clinical Neurophysiology on August 25, 2026, and the authors say they offer a framework for studying altered compensatory responses in neurological disorders.
Why it matters
For closed-loop stimulation and neurorehabilitation timing this matters more than it looks: if excitability moves on a predictable arc for an hour after effort, the window in which a training session lands could change its effect. Twenty healthy young adults is not a patient cohort, so it is a timing hypothesis rather than a protocol.
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pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 2026-08-25