The University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Biomedical Device Center, 800 West Campbell Road, Richardson, TX, 75080-3021, USA.
Department of Neuroscience, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 West Campbell Road, Richardson, TX, 75080-3021, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 15;14(1):18955. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-69666-z.
Learning new skills requires neuroplasticity. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) during sensory and motor events can increase neuroplasticity in networks related to these events and might therefore serve to facilitate learning on sensory and motor tasks. We tested if VNS could broadly improve learning on a wide variety of tasks across different skill domains in healthy, female adult rats. VNS was paired with presentation of stimuli or on successful trials during training, strategies known to facilitate plasticity and improve recovery in models of neurological disorders. VNS failed to improve either rate of learning or performance for any of the tested tasks, which included skilled forelimb motor control, speech sound discrimination, and paired-associates learning. These results contrast recent findings from multiple labs which found VNS pairing during training produced learning enhancements across motor, auditory, and cognitive domains. We speculate that these contrasting results may be explained by key differences in task designs, training timelines and animal handling approaches, and that while VNS may be able to facilitate rapid and early learning processes in healthy subjects, it does not broadly enhance learning for difficult tasks.
学习新技能需要神经可塑性。在感觉和运动事件期间进行迷走神经刺激（VNS）可以增加与这些事件相关的网络的神经可塑性，因此可能有助于促进感觉和运动任务的学习。我们测试了 VNS 是否可以在健康的成年雌性大鼠中广泛提高各种不同技能领域的各种任务的学习能力。VNS 与刺激的呈现或在训练期间成功试验配对，这些策略已知可以促进神经障碍模型中的可塑性和改善恢复。VNS 未能提高任何测试任务的学习速度或表现，这些任务包括熟练的前肢运动控制、语音辨别和配对联想学习。这些结果与最近来自多个实验室的发现形成对比，这些发现发现，在训练期间进行 VNS 配对会在运动、听觉和认知领域产生学习增强。我们推测，这些对比结果可能是由于任务设计、培训时间表和动物处理方法的关键差异造成的，尽管 VNS 可能能够促进健康受试者的快速和早期学习过程，但它并不能广泛提高困难任务的学习能力。
