Sönmez Özde, Holstein Elfriede, Puschmann Sebastian, Schmitt Tina, Witt Karsten, Thiel Christiane M
Biological Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Jan;62(1):e14739. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14739.
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) offers a non-invasive method to enhance noradrenergic neurotransmission in the human brain, thereby increasing cognitive control. Here, we investigate if changes in cognitive control induced by tVNS are mediated through locus coeruleus-induced modifications of neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. Young healthy participants engaged in a simple cognitive control task focusing on response inhibition and a more complex task that involved both response inhibition and working memory, inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The tasks were executed using a randomized within-subject design, with participants undergoing auricular tVNS and sham stimulation in separate sessions. tVNS significantly changed performance in the simple control task reflected in a greater propensity to respond. Furthermore, we observed a significant increase in neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex during the simple cognitive control task under tVNS. Functional connectivity analyses revealed positive coupling between neural activity in the locus coeruleus and anterior cingulate cortex, however, this was not modulated by tVNS. The findings suggest that non-invasive stimulation of the vagus nerve can modulate neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. While these neural effects suggest an impact of tVNS in a key region involved in conflict monitoring and cognitive control, the behavioral effects are more indicative of a shift in response bias rather than enhanced cognitive control.
经皮迷走神经刺激（tVNS）提供了一种非侵入性方法来增强人脑去甲肾上腺素能神经传递，从而增强认知控制。在此，我们研究tVNS诱导的认知控制变化是否通过蓝斑核诱导的前扣带回皮质神经活动改变来介导。年轻健康参与者在磁共振成像扫描仪内进行一项专注于反应抑制的简单认知控制任务以及一项涉及反应抑制和工作记忆的更复杂任务。任务采用随机的被试内设计执行，参与者在不同时段接受耳穴tVNS和假刺激。tVNS显著改变了简单控制任务中的表现，表现为更大的反应倾向。此外，我们观察到在tVNS下的简单认知控制任务期间，前扣带回皮质的神经活动显著增加。功能连接分析显示蓝斑核和前扣带回皮质的神经活动之间存在正耦合，然而，这并未受到tVNS的调节。研究结果表明，迷走神经的非侵入性刺激可调节前扣带回皮质的神经活动。虽然这些神经效应表明tVNS对参与冲突监测和认知控制的关键区域有影响，但行为效应更表明反应偏差的转变而非增强的认知控制。
