Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been shown to enhance extinction of conditioned fear in rats. Previous findings support this finding. It is hypothesized that this is the result of enhanced consolidation of extinction memories through the promotion of plasticity in related neural pathways. There are other explanations as well. The work supports rapidly expanding research into VNS, both invasive VNS and transcutaneous VNS (which is most often applied at the ear, e.g. transcutaneous auricular VNS/taVNS)
Read full abstract with link to article on Learning Memory
Citation: Noble LJ, Chuah A, Callahan KK, Souza RR, McIntyre CK. Peripheral effects of vagus nerve stimulation on anxiety and extinction of conditioned fear in rats. Learn Mem. 2019 Jun 17;26(7):245-251. doi: 10.1101/lm.048447.118. PMID: 31209119; PMCID: PMC6581007.
Comments