PMID- 33790736
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20240331
IS  - 1662-4548 (Print)
IS  - 1662-453X (Electronic)
IS  - 1662-453X (Linking)
VI  - 15
DP  - 2021
TI  - Brain-Heart Interaction During Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation.
PG  - 632697
LID - 10.3389/fnins.2021.632697 [doi]
LID - 632697
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) modulates 
      brain activity and heart function. The induced parasympathetic predominance leads 
      to an increase of heart rate variability (HRV). Knowledge on the corresponding 
      cortical activation pattern is, however, scarce. We hypothesized taVNS-induced 
      HRV increases to be related to modulation of cortical activity that regulates the 
      autonomic outflow to the heart. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In thirteen healthy 
      subjects, we simultaneously recorded 64-channel electroencephalography and 
      electrocardiography during taVNS. Two taVNS stimulation targets were 
      investigated, i.e., the cymba conchae and inner tragus, and compared to active 
      control stimulation in the anatomical vicinity, i.e., at the crus helicis and 
      outer tragus. We used intermitted stimulation bursts of 25 Hz applied at a 
      periodicity of 1 Hz. HRV was estimated with different time-domain methodologies: 
      standard deviation of RR (SDNN), the root mean squares of successive differences 
      (RMSSD), the percentage of RR-intervals with at least 50 ms deviation from the 
      preceding RR-interval (pNN50), and the difference of consecutive RR intervals 
      weighted by their mean (rrHRV). RESULTS: The stimulation-induced HRV increases 
      corresponded to frequency-specific oscillatory modulation of different cortical 
      areas. All stimulation targets induced power modulations that were proportional 
      to the HRV elevation. The most prominent changes that corresponded to HRV 
      increases across all parameters and stimulation locations were frontal elevations 
      in the theta-band. In the delta-band, there were frontal increases (RMSSD, pNN50, 
      rrHRV, SDNN) and decreases (SDNN) across stimulation sites. In higher 
      frequencies, there was a more divers activity pattern: Outer tragus/crus helicis 
      stimulation increased oscillatory activity with the most prominent changes for 
      the SDNN in frontal (alpha-band, beta-band) and fronto-parietal (gamma-band) 
      areas. During inner tragus/cymba conchae stimulation the predominant pattern was 
      a distributed power decrease, particularly in the fronto-parietal gamma-band. 
      CONCLUSION: Neuro-cardiac interactions can be modulated by electrical stimulation 
      at different auricular locations. Increased HRV during stimulation is correlated 
      with frequency-specific increases and decreases of oscillatory activity in 
      different brain areas. When applying specific HRV measures, cortical patterns 
      related to parasympathetic (RMSSD, pNN50, rrHRV) and sympathetic (SDNN) 
      modulation can be identified. Thus, cortical oscillations may be used to define 
      stimulation locations and parameters for research and therapeutic purposes.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2021 Machetanz, Berelidze, Guggenberger and Gharabaghi.
FAU - Machetanz, Kathrin
AU  - Machetanz K
AD  - Institute for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology, University of Tubingen, 
      Tubingen, Germany.
FAU - Berelidze, Levan
AU  - Berelidze L
AD  - Institute for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology, University of Tubingen, 
      Tubingen, Germany.
FAU - Guggenberger, Robert
AU  - Guggenberger R
AD  - Institute for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology, University of Tubingen, 
      Tubingen, Germany.
FAU - Gharabaghi, Alireza
AU  - Gharabaghi A
AD  - Institute for Neuromodulation and Neurotechnology, University of Tubingen, 
      Tubingen, Germany.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210315
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Front Neurosci
JT  - Frontiers in neuroscience
JID - 101478481
PMC - PMC8005577
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - cortical oscillations
OT  - electroceutical
OT  - electroencephalography
OT  - heart rate variability
OT  - non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS)
OT  - transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS)
COIS- The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any 
      commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential 
      conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2021/04/02 06:00
MHDA- 2021/04/02 06:01
PMCR- 2021/01/01
CRDT- 2021/04/01 06:25
PHST- 2020/11/23 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/02/17 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/04/01 06:25 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/04/02 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/04/02 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2021/01/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.3389/fnins.2021.632697 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Front Neurosci. 2021 Mar 15;15:632697. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.632697. 
      eCollection 2021.