Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 20, 2026
Transauricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Electroencephalographic Assessment in Disorders of Consciousness
Published on: July 11, 2025
Vagus somatosensory evoked potentials--a possibility for diagnostic improvement in patients with mild cognitive
Florian G Metzger1, Thomas Polak, Yashar Aghazadeh
1Psychophysiology and Optical Imaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany. florian.metzger@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Objective:
Vagus somatosensory evoked potentials (VSEP) are far-field potentials probably generated in nuclei of then. vagus in the lower brainstem. They represent a putative, easily applicable method for discrimination between patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy controls (HC).
Methods:
Thirteen patients with AD, 12 with MCI, and 27 age- and gender-matched HC were investigated by stimulating the cutaneous branch of the n. vagus; 8, 6, and 20, respectively, were included in the main part of the analysis.
Results:
In fronto-central recordings (electrode positions Fz-F4) a grading from HC over MCI to AD could be found, with a significant linear trend over the three groups and significantly increased latencies of the cognitively impaired patients but no significant difference between MCI and AD.
Conclusion:
The results indicate that the method of VSEP is able to discriminate between cognitively declined patients and HC, whereas no clear-cut differences were detected between MCI and AD.
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