Neural Engineering Seminar: Dr. Bashar Badran, June 21

Tomorrow June 21st at 2pm in CDI 3rd floor conference room (3.352)

Bashar Badran from the Medical Universty of South Carolina and University of New Mexico will be speaking

Title: Development, optimization, and neurophysiological effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS)

Abstract: taVNS is an emerging new form of neuromodulation involving transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve. Still in its infancy and showing much clinical promise, the optimal human stimulation parameters and direct brain effects are undetermined. This lecture will present the findings of two important studies that aim to solve the taVNS problem of infinite parametric solutions. The first, a taVNS parametric study exploring 9 different combinations of pulse width and frequency and their activation of the vagal tone as measured by physiological recordings. The second is a novel multi-modal imaging study that establishes concurrent taVNS/fMRI and explores the direct brain effect of taVNS on the human brain’s BOLD response. These findings aim to establish an aim and direction of the optimal taVNS parameters to guide future trials.