Vagus Nerve Stimulation Improves Working Memory Performance

SMC Author

Keith Ogawa

SMC Affiliated Work

1

Status

Faculty

School

School of Science

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Publication / Conference / Sponsorship

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology

Description/Abstract

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is used for treating refractory epilepsy and major depression. While the impact of this treatment on seizures has been established, its impact on human cognition remains equivocal. The goal of this study is to elucidate the immediate effects of vagus nerve stimulation on attention, cognition, and emotional reactivity in patients with epilepsy. Twenty patients (12 male and 8 female; 45 ± 13 years old) treated with VNS due to refractory epilepsy participated in the study. Subjects performed a computer-based test of executive functions embedded with emotional distractors while their brain activity was recorded with electroencephalography. Subjects’ cognitive performance, early visual event-related potential N1, and frontal alpha asymmetry were studied when cyclic vagus nerve stimulation was on and when it was off. We found that vagus nerve stimulation improved working memory performance as seen in reduced errors on a subtask that relied on working memory, odds ratio (OR) = 0.63 (95% confidence interval, CI [0.47, 0.85]) and increased N1 amplitude, F(1, 15) = 10.17, p = .006. In addition, vagus nerve stimulation resulted in longer reaction time, F(1, 16) = 8.23, p = .019, and greater frontal alpha asymmetry, F(1, 16) = 11.79, p = .003, in response to threat-related distractors. This is the first study to show immediate improvement in working memory performance in humans with clinically relevant vagus nerve stimulation. Furthermore, vagus nerve stimulation had immediate effects on emotional reactivity evidenced in behavior and brain physiology.

Keywords

Attention, Cognition, Executive functions, Frontal alpha asymmetry, Vagus nerve stimulation

Scholarly

yes

DOI

10.1080/13803395.2017.1285869

Volume

39

First Page

954

Last Page

964

Disciplines

Psychology

Original Citation

Sun, L. Peräkylä, J., Holm, K., Haapasalo, J., Lehtimäki, K., Ogawa, K.H., Peltola, J., & Hartikainen, K.M., “Vagus nerve stimulation improves working memory performance.” Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2017.1285869.

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