Figure 4.

Z-values of ReHo between pre- and post-VNS therapy were overlapped after coregistering to common individual anatomical space.

Notes: Pre-VNS-therapy Z-score maps shown in green; post-VNS-therapy Z-scores maps shown in red; yellow indicates common changing regions. Compared to pre-VNS therapy (green), post-VNS therapy (red) ReHo greatly increased in the left precentral gyrus, mPFC, and PCC. After VNS therapy, ReHo Z-score maps were more focused on the DMN networks (red post-VNS network indicates stronger focus on the DMN region, while green pre-VNS network indicates weaker focus). All brain-function maps were four voxel clusters corrected by the AFNI function 3dClustSim. (A) 3-D brain image indicating ReHo changes. (B) Axial result maps. All ReHo results were set at a threshold of Z>0.5.

Abbreviations: ReHo, regional homogeneity; VNS, vagus nerve stimulation; mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; DMN, default-mode network; AFNI, Analysis of Functional NeuroImages.