Transcutaneous auricular vagus stimulation (taVNS) improves human working memory performance under sleep deprivation stress

Zhao, Rui; Chang, Meng-Ying; Cheng, Chen; Tian, Qianqian; Yang, Xuejuan; Du, Meng-Yu; Cui, Ya-Peng; He, Zhao-Yang; Wang, Fumin; Kong, Yao; Deng, Hui; Lu, Liming; Tang, Chunzhi; Xu, Nenggui; Sun, Jinbo; Qin, Wei

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114247

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Specifically, we found that the taVNS and taVNS + SPB interventions specifically improved mACC in the spatial 3-back task, but not the spatial 1-back or digit 3-back tasks. This phenomenon has been replicated in more than 300 participants in our previous studies ( Sun et al, 2021a ; Zhao et al, 2022 , 2023 ), suggesting there may be some special mechanisms. A meta-analysis suggested that the verbal n-back, like the digit n-back task, was associated with enhanced activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, whereas the non-verbal location n-back task, like the spatial n-back task, was associated with enhanced activation in a set of regions described as the spatial attention network, which includes the right dorsolateral prefrontal, lateral premotor, and posterior parietal cortex ( Owen et al, 2005 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…However, there are likely many undiscovered mechanisms. As a team that has been focusing on taVNS-based WM performance modulation ( Sun et al, 2021a , b ; Zhao et al, 2023 ), we have investigated the synergistic effects of taVNS and tDCS and found significant improvement in the modulation effects ( Sun et al, 2021a , b ). Therefore, the current study explored the synergistic effects of taVNS and SPB on WM performance and we intend to continue investigating their combined effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Combined effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and 0.1 Hz slow-paced breathing on working memory

Tian

Cheng²,

Liu³

et al. 2023

Front. Neurosci.

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BackgroundPrevious research has found that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) can improve working memory (WM) performance. It has also been shown that 0.1 Hz slow-paced breathing (SPB, i.e., breathing at a rate of approximately 6 breaths/min) can significantly influence physical state and cognitive function via changes in autonomic afferent activity. In the present study, we investigated the synergistic effects of taVNS and SPB on WM performance.MethodsA total of 96 healthy people participated in this within-subjects experiment involving four conditions, namely taVNS, SPB, combined taVNS with SPB (taVNS + SPB), and sham. Each participant underwent each intervention for 30 min and WM was compared pre- and post-intervention using the spatial and digit n-back tasks in a random order four times. Permutation-based analysis of variance was used to assess the interaction between time and intervention.ResultsFor the spatial 3-back task, a significant interaction between time and intervention was found for the accuracy rate of matching trials (mACC, p = 0.03). Post hoc analysis suggested that both taVNS and taVNS + SPB improved WM performance, however, no significant difference was found in the SPB or sham groups.ConclusionThis study has replicated the effects of taVNS on WM performance reported in previous studies. However, the synergistic effects of combined taVNS and SPB warrant further research.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and 0.1 Hz slow-paced breathing on working memory

Tian

Cheng²,

Liu³

et al. 2023

Front. Neurosci.

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“…Moreover, vibrotactile taVNS seemed to elevate and maintain arousal levels to a state conducive to working memory function, making it potentially valuable for conditions where working memory is compromised by reduced arousal. A study demonstrated that taVNS improves human working memory under sleep deprivation stress 11 . Our study also illuminates the promise of vibrotactile taVNS as an intervention for patients with neurologically impaired working memory due to diagnoses such as Alzheimer’s disease or brain injury.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These sites are involved in regulating arousal and attention and, therefore, critical to working memory 5 . Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is shown to increase arousal levels in animal studies and has cognitive benefits in human studies 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Vibrotactile Stimulation of the Auricular Vagus Nerve Enhance Working Memory? A Behavioral and Physiological Investigation

Tan,

Adams,

Donovan

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Background: Working memory is essential to a wide range of cognitive functions and activities. Transcutaneous auricular VNS (taVNS) is a promising method to improve working memory performance. However, the feasibility and scalability of electrical stimulation are constrained by several limitations, such as auricular discomfort and inconsistent electrical contact. Objective: We aimed to develop a novel and practical method, vibrotactile taVNS, to improve working memory. Further, we investigated its effects on arousal, measured by skin conductance and pupil diameter. Method: This study included 20 healthy participants. Behavioral response, skin conductance, and eye tracking data were concurrently recorded while the participants performed N-back tasks under three conditions: vibrotactile taVNS delivered to the cymba concha, earlobe (sham control), and no stimulation (baseline control). Results: In 4-back tasks, which demand maximal working memory capacity, active vibrotactile taVNS significantly improved the performance metric d prime compared to the baseline but not to the sham. Moreover, we found that the reduction rate of d prime with increasing task difficulty was significantly smaller during vibrotactile taVNS sessions than in both baseline and sham conditions. Arousal, measured as skin conductance and pupil diameter, declined over the course of the tasks. Vibrotactile taVNS rescued this arousal decline, leading to arousal levels corresponding to optimal working memory levels. Moreover, pupil diameter and skin conductance level were higher during high-cognitive-load tasks when vibrotactile taVNS was delivered to the concha compared to baseline and sham. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that vibrotactile taVNS modulates the arousal pathway and could be a potential intervention for enhancing working memory.

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“…Three recent studies have examined the effects of tVNS on working memory and verbal order memory in healthy individuals ( Mertens et al, 2020 ; Kaan et al, 2021 ), as well as its impact on verbal memory performance in individuals under sleep deprivation stress ( Zhao et al, 2023 ). Zhao et al (2023) reported that tVNS improved working memory performance of participants after 24 h of sustained wakefulness. While under sleep deprivation stress, participants received tVNS stimulation prior to performing working memory tasks, including N-back task and psychomotor vigilance task (PVT).…”

Section: Cognitive Effects Of Tvns On Young Healthy Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) applications in cognitive aging: a review and commentary

Naparstek

Yeh

Mills-Finnerty

2023

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Differentiating healthy from pathological aging trajectories is extremely timely, as the global population faces an inversion where older adults will soon outnumber younger 5:1. Many cognitive functions (e.g., memory, executive functions, and processing speed) decline with age, a process that can begin as early as midlife, and which predicts subsequent diagnosis with dementia. Although dementia is a devastating and costly diagnosis, there remains limited evidence for medications, therapies, and devices that improve cognition or attenuate the transition into dementia. There is an urgent need to intervene early in neurodegenerative processes leading to dementia (e.g., depression and mild cognitive impairment). In this targeted review and commentary, we highlight transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) as a neurostimulation method with unique opportunities for applications in diseases of aging, reviewing recent literature, feasibility of use with remote data collection methods/telehealth, as well as limitations and conflicts in the literature. In particular, small sample sizes, uneven age distributions of participants, lack of standardized protocols, and oversampling of non-representative groups (e.g., older adults with no comorbid diagnoses) limit our understanding of the potential of this method. We offer recommendations for how to improve representativeness, statistical power, and generalizability of tVNS research by integrating remote data collection techniques.

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Transcutaneous auricular vagus stimulation (taVNS) improves human working memory performance under sleep deprivation stress

Cited by 10 publications

References 78 publications

Combined effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and 0.1 Hz slow-paced breathing on working memory

Combined effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and 0.1 Hz slow-paced breathing on working memory

Does Vibrotactile Stimulation of the Auricular Vagus Nerve Enhance Working Memory? A Behavioral and Physiological Investigation

Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) applications in cognitive aging: a review and commentary

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