VNS Implanted Tinnitus Patients
Conditions
Keywords
VNS, accelerate learning, memory
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to accelerate learning and improve memory performance in VNS implanted tinnitus participants by pairing VNS with a verbal paired-associate learning task.
Detailed description
Associative memory refers to remembering the association between two items, such as a face and a name or a word in English and the same word in another language. It is not only important for learning, but it is also one of the first aspects of memory performance that is impacted by aging and by Alzheimer׳s disease. For decades, neuroscientists have investigated associative learning and memory and ways to accelerate and enhance associative learning and memory. Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) has been delivered to patient populations (e.g. depression, epilepsy, …) for more than 25 years and there has been some indications that this technique has effects on cognition, more specifically memory. Studies have investigated VNS as a way to improve memory performance and it has been shown in some studies to enhance memory in rats and humans. It has also demonstrated to produce changes in the electrophysiological and metabolic profile of forebrain and brainstem structures involved in learning and memory. To investigate whether VNS can accelerate learning and improve associative memory when learning word pairs, we will investigate the performance of VNS implanted participants on a Verbal Paired-Associate memory task and compare their performance on the words that were learned while paired with VNS in contrast to their performance on the words that were learned while unpaired with VNS and in contrast to their performance on the words that were learned without VNS (i.e. 3 types/groups of words: paired with VNS, unpaired with VNS and without VNS) during the first visit and 1 day,1 week and 1 month after their first visit.
Interventions
DEVICEVagus Nerve Stimulation
Delivering electrical pulses to the Vagus Nerve
Sponsors
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The University of Texas at Dallas
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Within-subject design: To investigate whether VNS can accelerate learning and improve associative memory when learning word pairs, we will investigate the performance of VNS implanted participants on a Verbal Paired-Associate memory task and compare their performance on the words that were learned while paired with VNS in contrast to their performance on the words that were learned while unpaired with VNS and in contrast to their performance on the words that were learned without VNS (i.e. 3 types/groups of words: paired with VNS, unpaired with VNS and without VNS) during the first visit and 1 day,1 week and 1 month after their first visit.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 70 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 18-70 years old * Native English speaker
Exclusion criteria
* Acquainted with the foreign language used in the learning task
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Associative Memory assessed by a Verbal Paired-Associate test | Baseline session and 1 day, 1 week and 1 month after the baseline session | Changes in performance in the Verbal Paired-Associate memory task is compared between three groups of learned word pairs (1) learned word pairs paired with VNS, (2) learned word pairs unpaired with VNS, (3) learned word pairs paired without VNS |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed