title: Vagus somatosensory evoked potentials--a possibility for diagnostic improvement in patients with mild cognitive impairment?.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors: Psychophysiology and Optical Imaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany. florian.metzger@med.uni-tuebingen.de
authors: Florian G
authors: FG
authors: Metzger
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Polak
authors: Yashar
authors: Y
authors: Aghazadeh
authors: Ann-Christine
authors: AC
authors: Ehlis
authors: Katja
authors: K
authors: Hagen
authors: Andreas J
authors: AJ
authors: Fallgatter
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology*