Neuro-cardiac coupling predicts transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation effects

Brain Stimulation

Kathrin Machetanz¹  Marius Keute²  Alireza Gharabaghi³  Robert Guggenberger³  Levan Berelidze³ 

[1] Institute for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology, Department of Neurosurgery and Neurotechnology, And Tuebingen NeuroCampus, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany;Corresponding author. Institute for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology, University of Tuebingen, Otfried-Mueller-Str.45, 72076, Tuebingen, Germany.;Institute for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology, Department of Neurosurgery and Neurotechnology, And Tuebingen NeuroCampus, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany;

关键词: Auricular stimulation;    Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation;    Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation;    Heart rate variability;    Autonomic nervous system;    Parasympathetic nervous system;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Transcutaneous auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that may constitute an effective treatment for a wide range of neurological, psychiatric, and medical conditions. One key challenge in taVNS research is the high interindividual response variability. To gain an understanding of this variability, reliable biomarkers for taVNS responsiveness would be highly desirable. In this study, we investigated physiological candidate biomarkers while systematically varying stimulation conditions and observing physiological state characteristics. Methods: Forty-four healthy young adults received taVNS and sham-stimulation. Subjects were pseudo-randomly assigned to stimulation of the left or right ear. Each subject underwent six blocks of stimulation. Across blocks, respiration-locking (inhalation-locked taVNS vs. exhalation-locked taVNS vs. sham) and the electrode location (tragus vs. cymba conchae) were varied. We analyzed heart rate (HR), various heart rate variability (HRV) scores, and neuro-cardiac coupling (NCC), indexed by the relationship between electroencephalographic delta power and heartbeat length. Results: We observed an effect of taVNS on HR and HRV scores during, but not after stimulation. The direction of the effects was consistent with parasympathetic activation. We did not observe any systematic influence of the stimulation conditions that we varied. However, we found baseline NCC scores to be significant predictors for the individual effect of taVNS on HRV scores. Conclusion: Cardiac effects of taVNS indicate parasympathetic activation. These effects were short lived, which might explain that some previous studies were unable to detect them. We propose NCC as a novel candidate biomarker for responsiveness to taVNS.

【 授权许可】

Unknown