Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation influences gastric motility: A randomized, double-blind trial in healthy individuals

Brain Stimulation

Sven Fuest¹  Katja Menzler¹  Adam Strzelczyk²  Peter Mross²  Lukas Hakel³  Iris Gorny⁴  Susanne Knake⁵  Felix Rosenow⁵  Kenan Steidel⁵  Lars Timmermann⁵  Ilka Immisch⁵  Laura Schmidt⁵  Kristina Krause⁵  Sebastian Bauer⁵ 

[1] Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, CMBB, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany;Center for Personalized Translational Epilepsy Research (CePTER), Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany;Epilepsy Center Hessen and Department of Neurology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany;Epilepsy Center Frankfurt Rhine-Main and Department of Neurology, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany;Epilepsy Center Hessen and Department of Neurology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany;

关键词: Vagus nerve;    tVNS;    Vagus nerve stimulation;    Gastric motility;    Gut;    Real-time MRI;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been investigated regarding its therapeutic properties in several several conditions such as epilepsy, migraine and major depressive disorder and was shown to access similar neural pathways as invasive vagus nerve stimulation. While the vagus nerve's role in gut motility is physiologically established, the effect of taVNS has scarcely been investigated in humans and yielded conflicting results. Real-time gastric magnetic resonance imaging (rtMRI) is an established reproducible method to investigate gastric motility non-invasively. Objective: To investigate the influence of taVNS on gastric motility of healthy participants using rtMRI. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind study using high-frequency (HF) stimulation at 25Hz or low-frequency (LF) taVNS at 1Hz after ingestions of a standardized meal in 57 healthy participants. The gastric motility index (GMI) was determined by measuring the amplitude and velocity of the peristaltic waves using rtMRI. Results: After HF taVNS, GMI was significantly higher than after LF stimulation (p = 0.005), which was mainly attributable to a higher amplitude of the peristaltic waves (p = 0.003). Conclusion: We provide evidence that 4-h of taVNS influences gastric motility in healthy human participants for the first time using rtMRI. HF stimulation is associated with higher amplitudes of peristaltic waves in the gastric antrum compared to LF stimulation. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of different frequencies of taVNS and its therapeutic properties in conditions with impaired gastric motility.

【 授权许可】

Unknown