ArticleBehavioural brain research2021
The tactile experience paired with vagus nerve stimulation determines the degree of sensory recovery after chronic nerve damage.
Article in Behavioural brain research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Two decades of vagus nerve stimulation for stroke: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- At-Home Delivery of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Paired With Task-Specific Training Improves Performance of High-Priority Activities in Persons With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury or Stroke.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Trial
- Advice for translational neuroscience: move deliberately and build things.Bioelectronic medicine · 2025Article
- Vagus nerve stimulation for stroke rehabilitation: Neural substrates, neuromodulatory effects and therapeutic implications.The Journal of physiology · 2025Review
- Vagus nerve electrical stimulation in the recovery of upper limb motor functional impairment after ischemic stroke.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2024Review
- Neural mechanisms responsible for vagus nerve stimulation-dependent enhancement of somatosensory recovery.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Effective Delivery of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Requires Many Stimulations Per Session and Many Sessions Per Week Over Many Weeks to Improve Recovery of Somatosensation.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2023Article
- Importance of timing optimization for closed-loop applications of vagus nerve stimulation.Bioelectronic medicine · 2023Review
- Precise sound characteristics drive plasticity in the primary auditory cortex with VNS-sound pairing.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Vagus nerve stimulation does not improve recovery of forelimb motor or somatosensory function in a model of neuropathic pain.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Common Cholinergic, Noradrenergic, and Serotonergic Drugs Do Not Block VNS-Mediated Plasticity.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Rebuilding Body-Brain Interaction from the Vagal Network in Spinal Cord Injuries.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Direct and Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Treatment of Tinnitus: A Scoping Review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation as a Potential Adjuvant to Rehabilitation for Post-stroke Motor Speech Disorders.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Review
- How to fail with paired VNS therapy.Brain stimulationReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Loss of sensory function is a common consequence of neurological injury. Recent clinical and preclinical evidence indicates vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with tactile rehabilitation, consisting of delivery of a variety of mechanical stimuli to the hyposensitive skin surface, yields substantial and long-lasting recovery of somatosensory function after median and ulnar nerve transection and repair. Here, we tested the hypothesis that a specific component of the tactile rehabilitation paired with VNS is necessary for recovery of somatosensory function. In a second experiment in a separate cohort, we investigated whether VNS paired with tactile rehabilitation could improve skilled forelimb motor function. Elements of the study design, including planned sample size, assessments, and statistical comparisons, were preregistered prior to beginning data collection (https://osf.io/3tm8u/). Animals received a peripheral nerve injury (PNI) causing chronic sensory loss. Eight weeks after injury, animals were given a VNS implant followed by six weeks of tactile rehabilitation sessions consisting of repeated application of one of two distinct mechanical stimuli, a filament or a paintbrush, to the previously denervated forepaw. VNS paired with either filament indentation or brushing of the paw significantly improved recovery of forelimb withdrawal thresholds after PNI compared to tactile rehabilitation without VNS. The effect size was twice as large when VNS was paired with brushing compared to VNS paired with point indentation. An independent replication in a second cohort confirmed that VNS paired with brush restored forelimb withdrawal thresholds to normal. These rats displayed significant improvements in performance on a skilled forelimb task compared to rats that did not receive VNS. These findings support the utility of pairing VNS with tactile rehabilitation to improve recovery of somatosensory and motor function after neurological injury. Additionally, this study demonstrates that the sensory characteristics of the rehabilitation paired with VNS determine the degree of recovery.
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.