Evidence of bottom-up homeostatic modulation induced taVNS during emotional and Go/No-Go tasks

Lucas Camargo, Kevin Pacheco-Barrios, Anna Carolyna Gianlorenço, Maryela Menacho, Hyuk Choi, Jae Jun Song, Felipe Fregni

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Bilateral transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) - a non-invasive neuromodulation technique – has been investigated as a safe and feasible technique to treat many neuropsychiatric conditions. such as epilepsy, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. Our aim is to investigate the effect of taVNS on neurophysiological processes during emotional and Go/No-Go tasks, and changes in frontal alpha asymmetry. We performed a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial with 44 healthy individuals who were allocated into two groups (the active taVNS group and the sham taVNS group). Subjects received one session of taVNS (active or sham) for 60 min. QEEG was recorded before and after the interventions, and the subjects were assessed while exposed to emotional conditions with sad and happy facial expressions, followed by a Go/No-Go trial. The results demonstrated a significant increase in N2 amplitude in the No-Go condition for the active taVNS post-intervention compared to the sham taVNS after adjusting by handedness, mood, and fatigue levels (p = 0.046), significantly reduced ERD during sad conditions after treatment (p = 0.037), and increased frontal alpha asymmetry towards the right frontal hemisphere during the emotional task condition (p = 0.046). Finally, we observed an interesting neural signature in this study that suggests a bottom-up modulation from brainstem/subcortical to cortical areas as characterized by improved lateralization of alpha oscillations towards the frontal right hemisphere, and changes in ERP during emotional and Go/No-Go tasks that suggests a better subcortical response to the tasks. Such bottom-up effects may mediate some of the clinical effects of taVNS.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2069-2081
Number of pages13
JournalExperimental Brain Research
Volume242
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024 Sept

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024.

Keywords

  • Alpha frontal asymmetry
  • Ent-related potential
  • Go/No-Go
  • taVNS
  • Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

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