Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation boosts accuracy during perceptual decision-making
Brain Stimulation. 2025-05-01; 18(3): 975-986
DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.04.020
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Su S(1), Vanvoorden T(1), Le Denmat P(2), Zénon A(3), Braconnier C(1), Duque J(4).
Author information:
(1)Cognition and Actions Lab, Institute of Neuroscience, UCLouvain, Brussels,
Belgium.
(2)Department of Brain and Cognition, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
(3)Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux,
France.
(4)Cognition and Actions Lab, Institute of Neuroscience, UCLouvain, Brussels,
Belgium. Electronic address: .
BACKGROUND: The locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system is a
well-established regulator of behavior, yet its precise role remains unclear.
Animal studies predominantly support a « gain » hypothesis, suggesting that the
LC-NE system enhances sensory processing. In contrast, human studies have
proposed an alternative « urgency » hypothesis, postulating that LC-NE primarily
accelerates responses.
METHOD: To address this discrepancy, we administered transcutaneous vagus nerve
stimulation (tVNS) in two experiments. In the first experiment (n = 22), we
showed that 4-s tVNS trains reliably induced greater pupil dilation compared to
SHAM condition, indicating increased LC-NE activity. In the second experiment
(n = 21), we applied tVNS during a random dot motion task to assess its impact
on perceptual decision-making.
RESULT: tVNS improved accuracy without affecting reaction times, which appears
inconsistent with the « urgency » hypothesis. Exploratory drift-diffusion model
analyses further support the « gain » hypothesis, revealing that tVNS increased
the drift rate, indicative of enhanced evidence accumulation. Both accuracy and
drift-rate improvements were most prominent following errors and especially
pronounced in participants who exhibited post-error declines in these measures
under SHAM.
CONCLUSION: Our findings align with the « gain » hypothesis, with tentative
evidence suggesting that the impact of LC-NE activity adapts to task demands.
Accordingly, tVNS showed the strongest effects in contexts prone to accuracy
declines, possibly reflecting attentional disengagement, which points to a role
of LC in mitigating lapses of attention.
Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.04.020
PMID: 40311845
Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of competing interest The authors
declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of
this manuscript.