Han Sang-Yoon, Shim Leeseul, Lee Hyo-Jeong, Park Moo Kyun
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences for Convergence Medicine, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang-si, Republic of Korea.
Front Neurosci. 2024 Jul 18;18:1368754. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1368754. eCollection 2024.
Recent studies have shown that transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation (tVNS) holds promise as a treatment for neurological or psychiatric disease through the ability to modulate neural activity in some brain regions without an invasive procedure. The objective of this study was to identify the neural correlates underlying the effects of tVNS.
Twenty right-handed healthy subjects with normal hearing participated in this study. An auricle-applied tVNS device (Soricle, Neurive Co., Ltd., Gyeongsangnam-do, Republic of Korea) was used to administer tVNS stimulation. A session consisted of 14 blocks, including 7 blocks of tVNS stimulation or sham stimulation and 7 blocks of rest, and lasted approximately 7 min (1 block = 30 s). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed during the stimulation.
No activated regions were observed in the fMRI scans following both sham stimulation and tVNS after the first session. After the second session, tVNS activated two clusters of brain regions in the right frontal gyrus. A comparison of the activated regions after the second session of each stimulation revealed that the fMRI following tVNS exhibited four surviving clusters. Additionally, four clusters were activated in the overall stimulated area during both the first and second sessions. When comparing the fMRI results after each type of stimulation, the fMRI following tVNS showed four surviving clusters compared to the fMRI after sham stimulation.
tVNS could stimulate some brain regions, including the fronto-parietal network. Stimulating these regions for treating neurological or psychiatric disease might require applying tVNS for at least 3.5 min.
最近的研究表明，经皮迷走神经刺激（tVNS）有望成为治疗神经或精神疾病的方法，因为它能够在不进行侵入性手术的情况下调节某些脑区的神经活动。本研究的目的是确定tVNS作用的神经相关性。
20名听力正常的右利手健康受试者参与了本研究。使用一种贴于耳廓的tVNS装置（Soricle，Neurive Co., Ltd.，韩国庆尚南道）进行tVNS刺激。一个疗程包括14个时间段，其中包括7个tVNS刺激或假刺激时间段以及7个休息时间段，持续约7分钟（1个时间段 = 30秒）。在刺激过程中进行功能磁共振成像（fMRI）。
在第一个疗程后，假刺激和tVNS后的fMRI扫描均未观察到激活区域。在第二个疗程后，tVNS激活了右侧额回的两个脑区簇。对每个刺激的第二个疗程后的激活区域进行比较发现，tVNS后的fMRI显示有四个留存的簇。此外，在第一个和第二个疗程期间，整个刺激区域均有四个簇被激活。当比较每种刺激后的fMRI结果时，与假刺激后的fMRI相比，tVNS后的fMRI显示有四个留存的簇。
tVNS可以刺激包括额顶网络在内的一些脑区。刺激这些区域以治疗神经或精神疾病可能需要应用tVNS至少3.5分钟。
