A Review on the Effect of Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Brain Frequency Bands

Gülşah KONAKOĞLUa , Talar CİLACIb

aİstanbul Gelişim University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, İstanbul, Türkiye
bDemiroğlu Bilim University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, İstanbul, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
The vagus nerve, generally known as the parasympathetic efferent nerve, can be stimulated from different parts of the body using invasive or non-invasive methods. It is not known by what mechanisms vagus nerve stimulation works, and research on the subject continues. As a result of human studies, it has been shown that Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) affects many areas of the brain at the subcortical and cortical levels. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method of objectively imaging the electrical activity of the brain. Changes in EEG have been reported by vagal stimulation. In this review, studies examining the effect of VNS on brain frequency bands were evaluated. Literature suggests a need for studies examining short and long-term results of stimulations from different ears with different stimulation parameters on the brain frequencies of healthy and/or pathological individuals. In this way, auricular VNS can be used more specifically and effectively patients.
Keywords: Vagus nerve stimulation; electroencephalography; brain waves

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