Department of General Psychology: Judgment, Decision Making, Action, Faculty of Psychology, University of Hagen (FernUniversität in Hagen), Hagen, Germany; Department of Exercise Physiology, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Neuropsychologia. 2023 Aug 13;187:108614. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108614. Epub 2023 Jun 8.
Current research in brain stimulation suggests transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) as a promising tool to modulate cognitive functions in healthy populations, such as attention, memory, and executive functions. Empirical evidence in single-task contexts, suggests that taVNS promotes holistic task processing, which strengthens the integration of multiple stimulus features in task processing. However, it is unclear how taVNS might affect performance in multitasking, where the integration of multiple stimuli leads to an overlap in stimulus response translation processes, increasing the risk of between-task interference (crosstalk). In a single-blinded, sham-controlled, within-subject design, participants underwent taVNS while performing a dual task. To assess the effects of taVNS, behavioral (reaction times), physiological (heart rate variability, salivary alpha-amylase), and subjective psychological variables (e.g., arousal) were recorded over three cognitive test blocks. Our results revealed no overall significant effect of taVNS on physiological and subjective psychological variables. However, the results showed a significant increase in between-task interference under taVNS in the first test block, but not in the subsequent test blocks. Our findings therefore suggest that taVNS increased integrative processing of both tasks early during active stimulation.
目前的大脑刺激研究表明，经皮耳迷走神经刺激（taVNS）作为一种有前途的工具，可以调节健康人群的认知功能，如注意力、记忆力和执行功能。在单一任务环境下的实证证据表明，taVNS 促进整体任务处理，从而加强任务处理中多个刺激特征的整合。然而，目前尚不清楚 taVNS 如何影响多任务处理中的表现，在多任务处理中，多个刺激的整合导致刺激反应转换过程的重叠，增加了任务间干扰（串扰）的风险。在一项单盲、假对照、自身对照设计中，参与者在执行双重任务时接受 taVNS。为了评估 taVNS 的效果，在三个认知测试块期间记录了行为（反应时间）、生理（心率变异性、唾液α-淀粉酶）和主观心理变量（例如，唤醒）。我们的结果显示，taVNS 对生理和主观心理变量没有总体显著影响。然而，结果显示，在第一个测试块中，taVNS 下的任务间干扰显著增加，但在随后的测试块中没有增加。因此，我们的研究结果表明，taVNS 在积极刺激早期增加了对两个任务的综合处理。
