Effects of acute transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on emotion recognition in adolescent depression / Julian Koenig, Peter Parzer, Niklas Haigis, Jasmin Liebemann, Tamara Jung, Franz Resch and Michael Kaess

BackgroundTranscutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a promising therapeutic option for major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults. Alternative third-line treatments for MDD in adolescents are scarce. Here we aimed to assess the effects of acute tVNS on emotion recognition in adolescents with MDD.MethodsAdolescents (14-17 years) with MDD (n = 33) and non-depressed controls (n = 30) received tVNS or sham-stimulation in a cross-sectional, case-control, within-subject cross-randomized controlled trial, while performing different tasks assessing emotion recognition. Correct responses, response times, and errors of omission and commission on three different computerized emotion recognition tasks were assessed as main outcomes. Simultaneous recordings of electrocardiography and electro dermal activity, as well as sampling of saliva for the determination of α-amylase, were used to quantify the effects on autonomic nervous system function.ResultstVNS had no effect on the recognition of gradually or static expressed emotions but altered response inhibition on the emotional Go/NoGo-task. Specifically, tVNS increased the likelihood of omitting a response toward sad target-stimuli in adolescents with MDD, while decreasing errors (independent of the target emotion) in controls. Effects of acute tVNS on autonomic nervous system function were found in non-depressed controls only.ConclusionsAcute tVNS alters the recognition of briefly presented facial expressions of negative valence in adolescents with MDD while generally increasing emotion recognition in controls. tVNS seems to specifically alter early visual processing of stimuli of negative emotional valence in MDD. These findings suggest a potential therapeutic benefit of tVNS in adolescent MDD that requires further evaluation within clinical trials..

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

10 December 2019

2021

Erschienen:

10 December 2019

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:51

Enthalten in:

Psychological medicine - 51(2021), 3, Seite 511-520

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Koenig, Julian, 1985- [VerfasserIn]
Parzer, Peter [VerfasserIn]
Haigis, Niklas [VerfasserIn]
Liebemann, Jasmin [VerfasserIn]
Jung, Tamara [VerfasserIn]
Resch, Franz, 1953- [VerfasserIn]
Kaess, Michael, 1979- [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [lizenzpflichtig]
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Themen:

Adolescents
Color detection task
Depression
Electrocardiography
Electrodermal activity
Emotion recognition
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy
Heart rate
Heart rate variability
Major depressive disorder
Tension-type headache
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation
Vagus nerve stimulation
Visual analogue scale

Anmerkungen:

Gesehen am 04.09.2020

Umfang:

10

doi:

10.1017/S0033291719003490

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

1728866545