Modulatory effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) on attentional processes  

作　　者：Yuxin Chen Haoyu Yang Faguang Wang Xuejing Lu Li Hu 

机构地区：[1]CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health,Institute of Psychology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,China [2]Department of Psychology,Universityof ChineseAcademy of Sciences,Beijing,China [3]School of Intelligent Manufacturing,Wenzhou Polytechnic,Wenzhou,Zhejiang,China

出　　处：《General Psychiatry》2023年第6期512-522,共11页综合精神医学（英文）

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32071061,32171077);the Beijing Natural Science Foundation(JQ22018)and the Scientific Foundation of the Institute of Psychology,Chinese Academy of Sciences(E2CX4015).

摘　　要：Background The modulatory effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation(taVNS)on attention has varied in previous studies.This inconsistency might be attributed to the combined influence of the modulation effect on the different attentional functions,including alerting,orienting and executive control.Aims We aimed to preliminarily examine the modulatory effectsoftaVNS on differentattentionalfunctions.Methods Fifty-nine healthy participants were recruited and were randomly assigned to taVNS(receiving taVNS for 20 minutes)or control(receiving taVNS for 30 seconds)groups.All participants underwent a dot-probe task before and after the taVNS/control intervention.Their behavioural performance and electroencephalographic signals during pre-and post-tests were recorded,and different observed variables were extracted and analysed to characterise different attentional systems.Results We observed that active taVNS applied at the left ear significantly improved the overall behavioural performance,that is,shorter reaction time(RT)and lower intra-individual reaction time variability(lIRTV)for right-hand responses when compared with the control condition.In addition,active taVNS resulted in larger P3 and movement-related cortical potential(MRCP)amplitudes associated with right-hand reactions than the control condition.Active taVNS also decreased the difference between the pre-and post-tests in the power spectral density of spontaneous high-αband oscillations at C4 electrode.Importantly,parallel mediation models for right-hand responses showed that the change of P3 amplitude mediated the effects of taVNS on RT and lIRTV.In contrast,the change of MRCP amplitude suppressed the effect of taVNS on the lIRTV.Conclusions Our results provided behavioural and brain evidence supporting the effects of taVNS on different attentional systems,and their interaction further shaped behavioural performance,suggesting a promising role of taVNS in cognitive enhancement.

关 键 词：STIMULATION VAGUS BEHAVIOUR 

分 类 号：R749[医药卫生—神经病学与精神病学]