Jacobs Heidi I L, Riphagen Joost M, Razat Chantalle M, Wiese Svenja, Sack Alexander T
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS), Alzheimer Centre Limburg, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Department of Anaesthesiology, Sankt-Willibrord Spital, Emmerich, Germany.
Neurobiol Aging. 2015 May;36(5):1860-7. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.02.023. Epub 2015 Feb 28.
Direct vagus nerve stimulation (dVNS) is known to improve mood, epilepsy, and memory. Memory improvements have been observed in Alzheimer's disease patients after long-term stimulation. The potential of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), a noninvasive alternative to dVNS, to alter memory performance remains unknown. We aimed to investigate the effect of a single-session tVNS on associative memory performance in healthy older individuals. To investigate this, we performed a single-blind sham-controlled randomized crossover pilot study in healthy older individuals (n = 30, 50% female). During the stimulation or sham condition, participants performed an associative face-name memory task. tVNS enhanced the number of hits of the memory task, compared with the sham condition. This effect was specific to the experimental task. Participants reported few side effects. We conclude that tVNS is a promising neuromodulatory technique to improve associative memory performance in older individuals, even after a single session. More research is necessary to investigate its underlying neural mechanisms, the impact of varying stimulation parameters, and its applicability in patients with cognitive decline.
已知直接迷走神经刺激(dVNS)可改善情绪、癫痫和记忆力。长期刺激后,在阿尔茨海默病患者中观察到了记忆力的改善。经皮迷走神经刺激(tVNS)作为dVNS的一种非侵入性替代方法,其改变记忆表现的潜力尚不清楚。我们旨在研究单次tVNS对健康老年人联想记忆表现的影响。为了对此进行研究,我们在健康老年人(n = 30,50%为女性)中进行了一项单盲、假对照随机交叉试验性研究。在刺激或假刺激条件下,参与者执行一项联想面孔-名字记忆任务。与假刺激条件相比,tVNS增加了记忆任务的命中次数。这种效应是该实验任务所特有的。参与者报告的副作用很少。我们得出结论,即使是单次tVNS,也是一种有前景的神经调节技术,可改善老年人的联想记忆表现。有必要开展更多研究来探究其潜在的神经机制、不同刺激参数的影响及其在认知衰退患者中的适用性。
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