Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation modulates adaptive empathic learning under uncertainty

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) shows potential for modulating interoception and social cognition.
• Its impact on adaptive social learning, particularly under uncertainty, is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of taVNS on social reinforcement learning under uncertainty.
• To examine how taVNS influences learning rates and belief updates in an adaptive empathy task.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-eight participants received either active or sham taVNS.
• An adaptive empathy task assessed learning of a virtual character's emotion regulation preferences under stable and volatile conditions.
• Behavioral data were analyzed using the Hierarchical Gaussian Filter (HGF).

Main Results:

• taVNS did not affect overall accuracy or average learning rates.
• taVNS enhanced adaptability to volatile conditions, shown by increased learning rate modulation.
• Individual differences in empathy and interoceptive sensibility interacted with taVNS effects.

Conclusions:

• taVNS modulates adaptive social learning by increasing sensitivity to environmental volatility.
• These findings suggest taVNS has therapeutic potential for social cognition and adaptability in psychiatric conditions.
• The study highlights taVNS's role in navigating social uncertainty.