The Effect of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagal Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) on P3 Event-Related Potentials during a Bayesian Oddball Task

Abstract

Transcutaneous auricular Vagal Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique associated with possible modulation of norepinephrinergic (NE) activity. NE is suspected to contribute to generation of the P3 event-related potential. Recent evidence has produced equivocal evidence whether taVNS influences the P3 in healthy individuals during oddball tasks. We examined the effect of taVNS on P3 amplitudes using a novel visual Bayesian oddball task, which presented 200 sequences of three stimuli. The three consecutive stimuli in each sequence are labelled Draw 1, Draw 2 and Draw 3. In total, 47 Subjects completed this visual Bayesian oddball task under randomised sham and active taVNS stimulation in parallel with an electroencephalographic (EEG) recording. We conducted exploratory analyses of the effect of taVNS on P3 amplitudes separately for Draws. We found typical oddball effects on P3 amplitudes at Draws 1 and 2, but not Draw 3. At Draw 2, the oddball effect was enhanced during active compared to sham taVNS stimulation. These data provide evidence that taVNS influences parietal P3 amplitudes under specific circumstances. Only P3 amplitudes at Draw 2 were affected, which may relate to closure of Bayesian inference after Draw 2. Our findings seemingly support previously reported links between taVNS and the NE system.

Electroencephalographic Patterns in taVNS: A Systematic Review

“…On the late positive waves, the most used metric of this review was P300. Although, it was not different in the taVNS groups among most of the reports [ 28 , 36 , 40 , 42 , 43 ], using different tasks to measure the ERPs. Noteworthy, Mertens et al, using TMS-ERPs, detected an increase in P300 in the right motor cortex after active taVNS and a widespread decrease after sham stimulation, both during the measure of SICI.…”

“…Most of the studies analyzed ERP metrics on this review. Among the common oscillation assessments during events we detected early events, such as P100 [ 34 ], P180 [ 33 ], P200 [ 27 , 34 ], P300 [ 28 , 29 , 33 , 36 , 40 , 42 , 43 ], and N200 [ 27 , 28 , 34 , 36 ], and late events, such as P600 [ 33 ], N400 [ 35 ], and N450 [ 33 ].…”

Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Improves Spatial Working Memory in Healthy Young Adults

“…There were two specific questions: first, is there any difference between online and offline taVNS protocols in modulation effect on WM? Up to now, both online (e.g., Jacobs et al, 2015 ; Colzato et al, 2018 ; Giraudier et al, 2020 ) and offline (e.g., Alicart et al, 2020 ; Warren et al, 2020 ) taVNS could be seen in researches, and to the best of our knowledge, none of the studies have compared their efficiency. Meta-analyses of tDCS studies have suggested that for healthy population the significant effect could be found only in offline stimulation (see Hill et al, 2016 ), which might be caused by different neurobiological processes; namely, the online effects might result from resting membrane potential alterations, whereas the offline effects appear to result from modulation of synaptic plasticity ( Stagg and Nitsche, 2011 ; Medeiros et al, 2012 ; Hill et al, 2016 ).…”

Reduced Frontal Nogo-N2 With Uncompromised Response Inhibition During Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation—More Efficient Cognitive Control?

“…P3, on the other hand, is thought to be modulated by the phasic response of LC-NA system (Polich, 2007 ; Nieuwenhuis et al, 2011 ) and has been suggested as a potential biomarker for the efficacy of VNS in patients suffering from epilepsy (De Taeye et al, 2014 ). However, the results on P3 amplitude due to tVNS are mixed (Fischer et al, 2018 ; Ventura-Bort et al, 2018 ; Warren et al, 2019 ) and impact of tVNS on P3 may only be found in very specific circumstances (Warren et al, 2020 ). In addition to the claimed increase in NA release, VNS and tVNS may increase GABA release (Capone et al, 2015 ; Colzato and Beste, 2020 ) and long term stimulation may also lead to increased serotonin levels (Dorr and Debonnel, 2006 ).…”

“…They speculated based on signal detection theory, that N2 potential reflects external variables (noise) and internal variables (effort) so that lower amplitude reflects the better signal to noise ratio, less effort, and more efficient use of cognitive resources (Dubreuil-Vall et al, 2019 ). P3, on the other hand, has been used in previous tVNS studies as a biomarker of LC-NA system activation with so far mixed results (Fischer et al, 2018 ; Ventura-Bort et al, 2018 ; Warren et al, 2019 , 2020 ).…”