Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) and the Dynamics of Visual Bistable Perception

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Tino Zaehle¹  Hans-Jochen Heinze²  Philipp Ruhnau³  Lisa Boehrer³  Marius Keute³ 

[1] Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany;Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany;Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany;

关键词: tVNS;    transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation;    GABA;    bistable perception;    Necker cube;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnins.2019.00227

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is widely used for clinical applications, but its mechanism of action is poorly understood. One candidate pathway that might mediate the effects of tVNS is an increase in GABAergic neurotransmission. In this study, we investigated the effect of tVNS on visual bistable perception, which is highly coupled to GABA. Participants were 34 healthy young subjects. We used a static (Necker cube) and a dynamic (structure from motion) bistable perception task. Each subject underwent tVNS as well as sham (placebo) stimulation for ∼45 min. We analyze effects of tVNS on percept durations by means of Bayesian multilevel regression. We find no evidence for a modulation of bistable perception dynamics through tVNS in either task, but the analyses do not ultimately confirm the null hypothesis either. We discuss different possible implications of our finding and propose that GABAergic effects of tVNS should be further investigated using more direct measures of GABA concentration, and, more generally, that a better understanding of the mechanisms of action of vagus nerve stimulation is needed. Finally, we discuss limitations of our study design, data analysis, and conclusions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown