AUTHOR=Guidali Giacomo , Roncoroni Camilla , Bolognini Nadia 

TITLE=Modulating Frontal Networks’ Timing-Dependent-Like Plasticity With Paired Associative Stimulation Protocols: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.658723

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2021.658723

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=<p>Starting from the early 2000s, <italic>paired associative stimulation</italic> (PAS) protocols have been used in humans to study brain connectivity in motor and sensory networks by exploiting the intrinsic properties of timing-dependent cortical plasticity. In the last 10 years, PAS have also been developed to investigate the plastic properties of complex cerebral systems, such as the frontal ones, with promising results. In the present work, we review the most recent advances of this technique, focusing on protocols targeting frontal cortices to investigate connectivity and its plastic properties, subtending high-order cognitive functions like memory, decision-making, attentional, or emotional processing. Overall, current evidence reveals that PAS can be effectively used to assess, enhance or depress physiological connectivity within frontal networks in a timing-dependent way, in turn modulating cognitive processing in healthy and pathological conditions.</p>