Vagus nerve stimulation enhances fear extinction as an inverted-U function of stimulation intensity
| Autor: | Nicole M. Robertson, Seth A. Hays, Rimenez R. Souza, Michael P. Kilgard, Robert L. Rennaker, Christa K. McIntyre |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Male Vagus Nerve Stimulation medicine.medical_treatment Exposure therapy Stimulation Extinction Psychological Rats Sprague-Dawley 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Developmental Neuroscience Neuromodulation Medicine Animals Fear conditioning Stroke business.industry social sciences Extinction (psychology) Fear medicine.disease humanities Intensity (physics) Rats 030104 developmental biology medicine.anatomical_structure Neurology Anesthesia business 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Vagus nerve stimulation |
| Zdroj: | Experimental neurology. 341 |
| ISSN: | 1090-2430 |
| Popis: | Studies in rodents indicate that pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with extinction training enhances fear extinction. However, the role of stimulation parameters on the effects of VNS remains largely unknown. Identifying the optimal stimulation intensity is a critical step in clinical translation of neuromodulation-based therapies. Here, we sought to investigate the role of stimulation intensity in rats receiving VNS paired with extinction training in a rat model for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent single prolonged stress followed by a severe fear conditioning training and were implanted with a VNS device. After recovery, independent groups of rats were exposed to extinction training paired with sham (0 mA) or VNS at different intensities (0.4, 0.8, or 1.6 mA). VNS intensities of 0.4 mA or 0.8 mA decreased conditioned fear during extinction training compared to sham stimulation. Pairing extinction training with moderate VNS intensity of 0.8 mA produced significant reduction in conditioned fear during extinction retention when rats were tested a week after VNS-paired extinction. High intensity VNS at 1.6 mA failed to enhance extinction. These findings indicate that a narrow range of VNS intensities enhances extinction learning, and suggest that the 0.8 mA VNS intensity used in earlier rodent and human stroke studies may also be the optimal in using VNS as an adjuvant in exposure therapies for PTSD. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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