Combined effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and 0.1 Hz slow-paced breathing on working memory

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Chen Cheng¹  Ya-Peng Cui²  Qian-Qian Tian²  Peng-Hui Liu²  Meng-Kai Zhang²  Zi-Xin Yin²  Xue-Juan Yang³  Hui Deng³  Wei Qin³  Jin-Bo Sun³  Rui Zhao⁴  Chun-Zhi Tang⁵  Li-Ming Lu⁵  Neng-Gui Xu⁵ 

[1] Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging of the Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China;Intelligent Non-Invasive Neuromodulation Technology and Transformation Joint Laboratory, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China;Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging of the Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China;Intelligent Non-Invasive Neuromodulation Technology and Transformation Joint Laboratory, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China;Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging of the Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China;Guangzhou Institute of Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China;School of Electronics and Information, Xi’an Polytechnic University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China;South China Research Center for Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Medical College of Acu-Moxi and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China;

关键词: taVNS;    slow-paced breath;    working memory;    spatial n-back;    synergistic effects;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnins.2023.1133964

 received in 2022-12-29, accepted in 2023-02-22,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPrevious research has found that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) can improve working memory (WM) performance. It has also been shown that 0.1 Hz slow-paced breathing (SPB, i.e., breathing at a rate of approximately 6 breaths/min) can significantly influence physical state and cognitive function via changes in autonomic afferent activity. In the present study, we investigated the synergistic effects of taVNS and SPB on WM performance.MethodsA total of 96 healthy people participated in this within-subjects experiment involving four conditions, namely taVNS, SPB, combined taVNS with SPB (taVNS + SPB), and sham. Each participant underwent each intervention for 30 min and WM was compared pre- and post-intervention using the spatial and digit n-back tasks in a random order four times. Permutation-based analysis of variance was used to assess the interaction between time and intervention.ResultsFor the spatial 3-back task, a significant interaction between time and intervention was found for the accuracy rate of matching trials (mACC, p = 0.03). Post hoc analysis suggested that both taVNS and taVNS + SPB improved WM performance, however, no significant difference was found in the SPB or sham groups.ConclusionThis study has replicated the effects of taVNS on WM performance reported in previous studies. However, the synergistic effects of combined taVNS and SPB warrant further research.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Tian, Cheng, Liu, Yin, Zhang, Cui, Zhao, Deng, Lu, Tang, Xu, Yang, Sun and Qin.