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. 2023 Aug 8;30(2):e14395. doi: 10.1111/cns.14395

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1

Experimental design and behavioral performance. (A) taVNS treatment protocol. The 8‐week baseline period was followed by a 20‐week a‐/s‐taVNS treatment period (taVNS frequencies of 25 and 1 Hz, respectively). Subjects received taVNS 3–5 times/day for 30 min each. (B) Visual WM paradigm. A 0.5‐s gaze point (“*”) was shown at the beginning of each trial, followed by the encoding phase during which four images were presented in sequence, each lasting 1 s and separated by 13 ms. After the fourth image disappeared, a “+” was shown to indicate the beginning of the 3‐s maintenance phase. A probe image was then presented in the retrieval phase, and subjects were required to determine whether the probe image matched one of the images in the memory set within 2 s. (C) RT in the WM task. Compared with the pre‐taVNS state, RT was significantly shorter in the post‐taVNS state in the a‐taVNS group, whereas no significant difference in RT was observed between the pre‐ and post‐taVNS states in the s‐taVNS group. (D) Accuracy in the WM task. There was no significant difference in accuracy between pre‐ and post‐taVNS states in the a‐taVNS and s‐taVNS groups. ACC, accuracy; DMS, delayed matching‐to‐sample; RT, reaction time; taVNS, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation; WM, working memory. **p < 0.01.