ArticleBrain stimulation
kHz-frequency electrical stimulation selectively activates small, unmyelinated vagus afferents.
Article in Brain stimulation. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Continuous vs. intermittent chronic vagus nerve stimulation: effects on T-cell dependent antibody response, heart rate variability and body weight in immunized mice.Bioelectronic medicine · 2026Article
- The optimization of neuroprosthetic interfaces relying on biophysical and surrogate digital twins.npj biomedical innovations · 2026Review
- A Review of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Disease: Comprehensive Theory and Evidence for Mechanisms of Action.Comprehensive physiology · 2026Review
- Towards Closed-Loop Neuromodulation for Type 2 Diabetes With Ex Vivo Validation of Beta-Cell Activity and FOPP Detection.IEEE transactions on biomedical circuits and systems · 2026Article
- The mechanism and clinical research of vagus nerve electrical stimulation in the treatment of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.iScience · 2026Review
- The sixth bioelectronic medicine summit: Neurotechnologies for individuals and communities.Bioelectronic medicine · 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
- Application of kilohertz-frequency block to mitigate off-target motor effects of vagus nerve stimulation in swine.Nature communications · 2025Article
- [Development and electrophysiological validation of a temporal interference transcranial magnetic stimulation system for mice].Sheng wu yi xue gong cheng xue za zhi = Journal of biomedical engineering = Shengwu yixue gongchengxue zazhi · 2025Article
- Control of spatiotemporal activation of organ-specific fibers in the swine vagus nerve by intermittent interferential current stimulation.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Membrane depolarization mediates both the inhibition of neural activity and cell-type-differences in response to high-frequency stimulation.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Using neural biomarkers to personalize dosing of vagus nerve stimulation.Bioelectronic medicine · 2024Article
- Sacral Bioneuromodulation: The Role of Bone Marrow Aspirate in Spinal Cord Injuries.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Spatiotemporal parameters for energy efficient kilohertz-frequency nerve block with low onset response.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Measuring and modeling the effects of vagus nerve stimulation on heart rate and laryngeal muscles.Bioelectronic medicine · 2023Article
- Chronic vagus nerve stimulation in patients with heart failure: challenge or failed translation?Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Review
- Editorial: Advances in bioelectronics and stimulation strategies for next generation neuroprosthetics.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- A standardized, surgically relevant map for emergence of organ-specific branches from the human vagus nerve.Brain stimulationArticle
- Cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of cervical vagus vs. auricular nerve: a comparative, parametric study in nonhuman primates.Brain stimulationArticle
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Authors and funding
18 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVagal reflexes regulate homeostasis in visceral organs and systems through afferent and efferent neurons and nerve fibers. Small, unmyelinated, C-type afferents comprise over 80% of fibers in the vagus and form the sensory arc of autonomic reflexes of the gut, lungs, heart and vessels and the immune system. Selective bioelectronic activation of C-afferents could be used to mechanistically study and treat diseases of peripheral organs in which vagal reflexes are involved, but it has not been achieved.
methodsWe stimulated the vagus in rats and mice using trains of kHz-frequency stimuli. Stimulation effects were assessed using neuronal c-Fos expression, physiological and nerve fiber responses, optogenetic and computational methods.
resultsIntermittent kHz stimulation for 30 min activates specific motor and, preferentially, sensory vagus neurons in the brainstem. At sufficiently high frequencies (>5 kHz) and at intensities within a specific range (7-10 times activation threshold, T, in rats; 15-25 × T in mice), C-afferents are activated, whereas larger, A- and B-fibers, are blocked. This was determined by measuring fiber-specific acute physiological responses to kHz stimulus trains, and by assessing fiber excitability around kHz stimulus trains through compound action potentials evoked by probing pulses. Aspects of selective activation of C-afferents are explained in computational models of nerve fibers by how fiber size and myelin shape the response of sodium channels to kHz-frequency stimuli.
conclusionkHz stimulation is a neuromodulation strategy to robustly and selectively activate vagal C-afferents implicated in physiological homeostasis and disease, over larger vagal fibers.
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