Non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation enhances cognitive emotion regulation


Author: Stefanie De Smet1, Chris Baeken2, Nina Seminck3, Jozefien Tilleman3, Evelien Carrette4, Kristl Vonck5, Marie-Anne Vanderhasselt6

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Department of Head and Skin, Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: stefanie.desmet@ugent.be.

<sup>2</sup> Department of Head and Skin, Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Psychiatry, Brussels University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium; Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands.

<sup>3</sup> Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent, Belgium.

<sup>4</sup> Department of Head and Skin, Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Head and Skin, Neurology, 4 Brain, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium.

<sup>5</sup> Department of Head and Skin, Neurology, 4 Brain, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium.

<sup>6</sup> Department of Head and Skin, Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Conference/Journal: Behav Res Ther
Date published: 2021 Jul 24
Other:
 Volume ID: 145   ,  Pages: 103933   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103933.   ,  Word Count: 217  
    Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been proposed as a potential new tool in the treatment of major depressive disorder. Prior studies have demonstrated that taVNS enhances cognitive control and is able to modulate brain activity in key regions involved in cognitive emotion regulation, such as the anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, which is known to be impaired in depressed patients. Preclinical studies are lacking but may provide important insights into the working mechanisms of taVNS on cognitive emotion regulatory processes. In this between-subject study, 83 healthy subjects underwent a single-session of active taVNS or sham stimulation, after which cognitive reappraisal was examined using a computer-based cognitive emotion regulation task. Our results indicate that participants receiving active taVNS, compared to sham, were better at using cognitive reappraisal and rated their response to emotion-eliciting pictures as less intense. Yet, even though we found significant differences in behavioral measures of cognitive emotion regulation, no differences between groups were found in terms of physiological responses to the emotional stimuli. Overall, these findings suggest a positive effect of taVNS on the cognitive reappraisal of emotions, but future studies assessing objective measures of neural activity during cognitive emotion regulation following taVNS are warranted.



Keywords: Affective neuroscience; Cognitive emotion regulation; Cognitive reappraisal; Psychophysiology; Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation.



PMID: 34332299 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103933