Ludwig Mareike, Betts Matthew J, Hämmerer Dorothea
Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
CBBS Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Jan;62(1):e14753. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14753.
The decline in noradrenergic (NE) locus coeruleus (LC) function in aging is thought to be implicated in episodic memory decline. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS), which supports LC function, might serve to preserve or improve memory function in aging. However, taVNS effects are generally very heterogeneous, and it is currently unclear whether taVNS has an effect on memory. In this study, an emotional memory task with negative events involving the LC-NE system was combined with the short burst of event-related taVNS (3 s) in younger adults (N = 24). The aim was to investigate taVNS-induced changes in pupil dilation during encoding and possible taVNS-induced improvements in (emotional) memory performance for early and delayed (24 h) recognition. Negative events were associated with increased pupil dilation and better memory performance. Additionally, real as compared to sham or no stimulation selectively increased memory for negative events. Short bursts of stimulation, whether real or sham, led to an increase in pupil dilation and an improvement in memory performance over time, likely due to the attention-inducing sensory modulation of electrical stimulation.
去甲肾上腺素能（NE）蓝斑（LC）功能在衰老过程中的下降被认为与情景记忆衰退有关。经皮耳迷走神经刺激（taVNS）可支持LC功能，可能有助于维持或改善衰老过程中的记忆功能。然而，taVNS的效果通常非常异质性，目前尚不清楚taVNS是否对记忆有影响。在本研究中，将涉及LC-NE系统的负面事件的情绪记忆任务与年轻成年人（N = 24）中短阵事件相关taVNS（3秒）相结合。目的是研究编码期间taVNS引起的瞳孔扩张变化以及taVNS可能引起的早期和延迟（24小时）识别的（情绪）记忆表现改善。负面事件与瞳孔扩张增加和更好的记忆表现相关。此外，与假刺激或无刺激相比，真实刺激选择性地提高了对负面事件的记忆。短阵刺激，无论是真实的还是假的，都会随着时间的推移导致瞳孔扩张增加和记忆表现改善，这可能是由于电刺激引起的注意力诱导感觉调制。
