Enhancing cognitive abilities through transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation: Findings from prefrontal functional connectivity analysis and virtual brain simulation

IF 4.7 2区医学 Q1 NEUROIMAGING

NeuroImage Pub Date : 2025-03-28 DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121179

Sora An , Se Jin Oh , Shinhee Noh , Sang Beom Jun , Jee Eun Sung

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Recent studies have indicated the potential of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) as an intervention for cognitive decline. In this study, we systematically analyzed the effects of taVNS on cognitive enhancement from the perspective of brain networks, by combining functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signal analysis with virtual brain simulations. Behavioral experiments with older adults demonstrated that participants with low baseline performance experienced significant improvements in working memory performance following taVNS, while those with high baseline performance tended to decline. This pattern was closely associated with functional connectivity (FC) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) concurrently measured during the behavioral tasks, i.e., task performance correlated with FC in the PFC, particularly in the medial PFC (mPFC). Moreover, the changes in performance due to taVNS, which varied based on baseline performance, exhibited a notable alignment with the FC changes in the mPFC. These findings were further explored through virtual brain simulations. The simulation results demonstrated that the brain's functional state could vary depending on the network coupling parameter—capable of reflecting loss of structural brain connectivity associated with aging—and that the modulation effects induced by taVNS may also differ based on those functional states. Current results indicate that the efficacy of taVNS interventions for cognitive enhancement may vary according to the pre-intervention structural and functional states of individual brains. Therefore, the development of personalized optimization strategies for taVNS intervention is crucial, and digital brain research holds significant promise in advancing this field.

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经皮耳迷走神经刺激增强认知能力：来自前额叶功能连通性分析和虚拟脑模拟的结果

最近的研究表明，经皮耳迷走神经刺激（taVNS）作为一种干预认知能力下降的潜力。本研究采用功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）信号分析与虚拟脑模拟相结合的方法，从脑网络的角度系统分析了taVNS对认知增强的影响。对老年人进行的行为实验表明，基线表现较低的参与者在taVNS后的工作记忆表现有显著改善，而基线表现较高的参与者则趋于下降。这种模式与在行为任务中同时测量的前额叶皮质（PFC）的功能连通性（FC）密切相关，即任务表现与PFC中的FC相关，特别是在内侧PFC （mPFC）中。此外，taVNS引起的性能变化（基于基线性能变化）与mPFC的FC变化有显著的一致性。这些发现通过虚拟大脑模拟得到了进一步的探索。模拟结果表明，大脑的功能状态可能取决于网络耦合参数（能够反映与衰老相关的大脑结构连通性的丧失），并且taVNS诱导的调制效应也可能基于这些功能状态而不同。目前的研究结果表明，taVNS干预对认知增强的效果可能因干预前个体大脑的结构和功能状态而异。因此，开发个性化的taVNS干预优化策略至关重要，而数字大脑研究在推进这一领域具有重要的前景。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

NeuroImage 医学-核医学

CiteScore

11.30

自引率

10.50%

发文量

809

审稿时长

63 days

期刊介绍： NeuroImage, a Journal of Brain Function provides a vehicle for communicating important advances in acquiring, analyzing, and modelling neuroimaging data and in applying these techniques to the study of structure-function and brain-behavior relationships. Though the emphasis is on the macroscopic level of human brain organization, meso-and microscopic neuroimaging across all species will be considered if informative for understanding the aforementioned relationships.