Giraudier Manon, Ventura-Bort Carlos, Weymar Mathias
Department of Biological Psychology and Affective Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Potsdam, Campus Golm, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany.
Brain Sci. 2024 Jul 10;14(7):690. doi: 10.3390/brainsci14070690.
Non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has attracted increasing interest as a neurostimulation tool with potential applications in modulating cognitive processes such as attention and memory, possibly through the modulation of the locus-coeruleus noradrenaline system. Studies examining the P300 brain-related component as a correlate of noradrenergic activity, however, have yielded inconsistent findings, possibly due to differences in stimulation parameters, thus necessitating further investigation. In this event-related potential study involving 61 participants, therefore, we examined how changes in taVNS parameters, specifically stimulation type (interval vs. continuous stimulation) and duration, influence P300 amplitudes during a visual novelty oddball task. Although no effects of stimulation were found over the whole cluster and time window of the P300, cluster-based permutation tests revealed a distinct impact of taVNS on the P300 response for a small electrode cluster, characterized by larger amplitudes observed for easy targets (i.e., stimuli that are easily discernible from standards) following taVNS compared to sham stimulation. Notably, our findings suggested that the type of stimulation significantly modulated taVNS effects on the P300, with continuous stimulation showing larger P300 differences (taVNS vs. sham) for hard targets and standards compared to interval stimulation. We observed no interaction effects of stimulation duration on the target-related P300. While our findings align with previous research, further investigation is warranted to fully elucidate the influence of taVNS on the P300 component and its potential utility as a reliable marker for neuromodulation in this field.
非侵入性经皮耳迷走神经刺激（taVNS）作为一种神经刺激工具，通过调节蓝斑去甲肾上腺素能系统，在调节注意力和记忆等认知过程方面具有潜在应用，因此引起了越来越多的关注。然而，研究将与大脑相关的P300成分作为去甲肾上腺素能活动的相关指标，结果却不一致，这可能是由于刺激参数的差异，因此有必要进一步研究。因此，在这项涉及61名参与者的事件相关电位研究中，我们研究了taVNS参数的变化，特别是刺激类型（间隔刺激与连续刺激）和持续时间，如何在视觉新奇Oddball任务中影响P300波幅。虽然在P300的整个簇和时间窗口上未发现刺激效应，但基于簇的置换检验显示，taVNS对一个小电极簇的P300反应有显著影响，其特征是与假刺激相比，taVNS后容易识别的目标（即与标准刺激易于区分的刺激）观察到更大的波幅。值得注意的是，我们的研究结果表明，刺激类型显著调节了taVNS对P300的影响，与间隔刺激相比，连续刺激对困难目标和标准刺激显示出更大的P300差异（taVNS与假刺激）。我们未观察到刺激持续时间对与目标相关的P300的交互作用。虽然我们的研究结果与先前的研究一致，但仍需进一步研究，以充分阐明taVNS对P300成分的影响及其作为该领域神经调节可靠标志物的潜在效用。
