title: Selective control of physiological responses by temporally-patterned electrical stimulation of the canine vagus nerve.
abstract: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is effective for treating epilepsy and depression, and has emerging indications for anxiety and heart failure. However, stimulation-evoked side effects remain a challenge for long-term compliance. We investigated the feasibility of reducing VNS side effects by using a temporally-modified stimulation pattern. In 4 anesthetized canines, we measured changes in both the heart rate and evoked laryngeal muscle activity. Compared to baseline, we found that a 5% duty cycle (measured by the number of pulses per second of stimulation) could still evoke a 21% reduction in heart rate; whereas compared to continuous stimulation (3 mA, 300 μs pulsewidth, 20 Hz) the same 5% duty cycle reduced the evoked laryngeal muscle activity by 90%. The results of this study indicate that temporally-patterned stimulation may provide an effective tool for optimizing VNS therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Paul B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Juan G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Hincapie
authors.forename: Jason J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hamann
authors.forename: Stephen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ruble
authors.forename: Patrick D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Warren M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Grill
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology*