Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36438376›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychology2022

Cognitive function and brain activation before and after transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation in healthy adults: A concurrent tcVNS-fMRI study.

Han Zhang, Zhiwei Guo, Yun Qu, Yu Zhao, Yuxuan Yang, Juan Du, Chunlan Yang

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Han ZhangDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Zhiwei GuoBrain Function Rehabilitation and Development Institute, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China.
Yun QuDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Yu ZhaoDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China.
Yuxuan YangDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China.
Juan DuDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China.
Chunlan YangDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
North Sichuan Medical University · CNWest China Medical Center of Sichuan University · CNNanchong Central Hospital · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, which involves the application of electrical currents to the cervical (tcVNS) or auricular (taVNS) branches of the vagus nerve, may be a potential treatment for improving cognitive dysfunction. taVNS may improve cognitive performance in healthy adults, and fewer studies have been performed on the effects of tcVNS on cognition in healthy subjects. We conducted a randomized, single-blind, crossover-controlled trial to investigate the effects of tcVNS stimulation on cognitive function and neural activity in the brains of healthy adults. This study provides support for further tcVNS studies for the treatment of cognitive impairment. Twenty-one participants were randomly divided into two groups, A and B. Group A received tcVNS first and then sham-tcVNS, while group B received the intervention in the reverse order, receiving sham stimulation first and then true stimulation. All subjects were required to perform cognitive function tests before and after receiving intervention, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed concurrently during the intervention. We hypothesized that tcVNS would have an effect on the cognitive performance of the subjects and alter the neural activity of the brain. The present study showed that tcVNS had beneficial effects on cognitive performance, mainly improving memory and language skills and attention. tcVNS intervention produced significant spontaneous neural activity in the calcarine gyrus, fusiform gyrus, lingual gyrus, and parahippocampal gyrus of the brain. Future tcVNS/fMRI trials will need to explore the effects of changes in stimulus parameters on the neural activity response of the brain.

Indexed as

cognitionfunctional magnetic resonance imagingmemoryneural activitytranscutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation

Identifiers

PMID36438376
PMCPMC9691850
OpenAlexW4308935835

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.