ArticleNeuroscience2018
Varying Stimulation Parameters to Improve Cortical Plasticity Generated by VNS-tone Pairing.
Article in Neuroscience, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Two decades of vagus nerve stimulation for stroke: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring Electrical Neuromodulation as an Alternative Therapeutic Approach in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Pooled it
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Chronic Insomnia Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Differential Gamma Responses to Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Revealed by Human Intracranial Recordings.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2026Article
- Cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of cervical vagus vs. auricular nerve: a comparative, parametric study in nonhuman primates.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Advice for translational neuroscience: move deliberately and build things.Bioelectronic medicine · 2025Article
- Pairing tones with vagus nerve stimulation improves brain stem responses to speech in the valproic acid model of autism.Journal of neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Vagus nerve stimulation in the non-human primate: implantation methodology, characterization of nerve anatomy, target engagement and experimental applications.Bioelectronic medicine · 2023Article
- Timing of vagus nerve stimulation during fear extinction determines efficacy in a rat model of PTSD.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Human intracranial recordings reveal distinct cortical activity patterns during invasive and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Acute vagus nerve stimulation enhances reversal learning in rats.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2021Article
- The tactile experience paired with vagus nerve stimulation determines the degree of sensory recovery after chronic nerve damage.Behavioural brain research · 2021Article
- Restoration of Somatosensory Function by Pairing Vagus Nerve Stimulation with Tactile Rehabilitation.Annals of neurology · 2020Article
- Enhancing plasticity in central networks improves motor and sensory recovery after nerve damage.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Norepinephrine and serotonin are required for vagus nerve stimulation directed cortical plasticity.Experimental neurology · 2019Article
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation Rate and Duration Determine whether Sensory Pairing Produces Neural Plasticity.Neuroscience · 2019Article
- Protocol for Construction of Rat Nerve Stimulation Cuff Electrodes.Methods and protocols · 2019Article
- Bioelectric neuromodulation for gastrointestinal disorders: effectiveness and mechanisms.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2019Review
- Cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of cervical vagus vs. auricular nerve: a comparative, parametric study in nonhuman primates.Brain stimulationArticle
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with movements or sounds can direct robust plasticity in motor or auditory cortex, respectively. The degree of map plasticity is influenced by the intensity and pulse width of VNS, number of VNS-event pairings, and the interval between each pairing. It is likely that these parameters interact, influencing optimal implementation of VNS pairing protocols. We varied VNS intensity, number of stimulations, and inter-stimulation interval (ISI) to test for interactions among these parameters. Rats were implanted with a vagus nerve stimulating cuff and randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups to receive 20 days of VNS paired with a 9-kHz tone: (1) Fast VNS: 50 daily pairings of 400-µA VNS with a 30-s ISI; (2) Dispersed VNS: 50 daily pairings of 400-µA VNS with a 180-s ISI; and (3) Standard VNS: 300 daily pairings of 800-µA VNS with a 30-s ISI. Following 20 days of VNS-tone pairing, multi-unit recordings were conducted in primary auditory cortex (A1) and receptive field properties were analyzed. Increasing ISI (Dispersed VNS) did not lead to an enhancement of cortical plasticity. Reducing the current intensity and number of stimulations (Fast VNS) resulted in robust cortical plasticity, using 6 times fewer VNS pairings than the Standard protocol. These findings reveal an interaction between current intensity, stimulation number, and ISI and identify a novel VNS paradigm that is substantially more efficient than the previous standard paradigm.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.