ArticleExperimental neurology2019
Norepinephrine and serotonin are required for vagus nerve stimulation directed cortical plasticity.
Article in Experimental neurology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers.
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
84 citing papers in PubMed, 153 citations in OpenAlex.
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation paired with task-specific training for improving walking and balance in chronic stroke: a double-blind, randomised controlled feasibility trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation modifies cortical excitability in middle-aged and older adults.Psychophysiology · 2025Trial
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Visually Induced Motion Sickness: An eLORETA Study.Brain topography · 2024Trial
- Transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation improves sensory performance in humans: a randomized controlled crossover pilot study.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Improving Sleep Quality, Daytime Sleepiness, and Cognitive Function in Patients with Dementia by Therapeutic Exercise and NESA Neuromodulation: A Multicenter Clinical Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Roles of the Cholinergic and Adrenergic Systems in Vagus Nerve Stimulation for the Recovery of Motor Function in Patients with Stroke: Opportunities for Novel Treatments and Rehabilitation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Right vagus nerve stimulation promotes motor cortical plasticity.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Neuromodulation: Evolution from Bench to Bedside.Neurology international · 2026Article
- Cell Signaling by Tryptophan Catabolism.Biochemistry · 2026Review
- Norepinephrine triggers ovarian granulosa cell ferroptosis via αJournal of ovarian research · 2026Article
- A deep representation learning model to predict response to vagus nerve stimulation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Neurotransmitter Systems in Alzheimer's Disease.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- Rehabilitation paired with vagus nerve stimulation for motor function of chronic ischemic stroke patients in China: Study protocol of a multicenter randomized controlled trial (Repair Study).Neuroprotection (Chichester, England) · 2026Article
- Pairing extinction training with vagus nerve stimulation reduces drug-seeking by altering activity in afferents to the medial prefrontal cortex.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Paired vagus nerve stimulation for post-stroke shoulder motor recovery: corticospinal-C5 motor network plasticity and rehabilitation applications.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Review
- Biomarkers for complex post-traumatic stress disorder: translational and evolutionary perspectives.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Pairing extinction training with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) reduces drug-seeking by altering activity in afferents to the medial prefrontal cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The Gut Microbiome as a Modulator of Traumatic Brain Injury Pathology and Symptoms.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Review
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with forelimb training drives robust, specific reorganization of movement representations in the motor cortex. This effect is hypothesized to be mediated by VNS-dependent engagement of neuromodulatory networks. VNS influences activity in the locus coeruleus (LC) and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), but the involvement of these neuromodulatory networks in VNS-directed plasticity is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that cortical norepinephrine and serotonin are required for VNS-dependent enhancement of motor cortex plasticity. Rats were trained on a lever pressing task emphasizing proximal forelimb use. Once proficient, all rats received a surgically implanted vagus nerve cuff and cortical injections of either immunotoxins to deplete serotonin or norepinephrine, or vehicle control. Following surgical recovery, rats received half second bursts of 0.8 mA or sham VNS after successful trials. After five days of pairing intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) was performed in the motor cortex contralateral to the trained limb. VNS paired with training more than doubled cortical representations of proximal forelimb movements. Depletion of either cortical norepinephrine or serotonin prevented this effect. The requirement of multiple neuromodulators is consistent with earlier studies showing that these neuromodulators regulate synaptic plasticity in a complimentary fashion.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.