Cognitive effects of subdiaphragmatic vagal deafferentation in rats
Open accessAbstract
Vagal afferents are a crucial neuronal component of the gut-brain axis and mediate the information flow from the viscera to the central nervous system. Based on the findings provided by experiments involving vagus nerve stimulation, it has been suggested that vagal afferent signaling may influence various cognitive functions such as recognition memory and cognitive flexibility. Here, we examined this hypothesis using a rat model of subdiaphragmatic vagal deafferentation (SDA), the most complete and selective abdominal vagal deafferentation method existing to date. We found that SDA did not affect working memory in a nonspatial alternation task, nor did it influence short-, intermediate-, and long-term object recognition memory. SDA did also not affect the acquisition of positively reinforced left-right discrimination learning, but it facilitated the subsequent reversal left-right discrimination learning. The SDA-induced effects on reversal learning emerged in the absence of concomitant changes in motivation towards the positive reinforcer, indicating selective effects on cognitive flexibility. Taken together, these findings suggest that the relative contribution of vagal afferent signaling to cognitive functions is limited. At the same time, our study demonstrates that cognitive flexibility, at least in the domains of positively reinforced learning, is subjected to visceral modulation through abdominal vagal afferents.
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Vagus nerve stimulation improves cognitive processes and has been attributed to modulation of central noradrenergic and GABA systems and neuronal adaptations in the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.
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From Signalling cognition: The gut microbiota and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (2023) · cites this paper as [500]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Klarer, M., Weber-Stadlbauer, U., Arnold, M., Langhans, W., & Meyer, U.
- Affiliations
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Klarer, Melanie
- Venue
- Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-07
- Volume
- 142
- Issue
- Pt B
- Pages
- 190-199
- ISSN
- 1074-7427 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2612614742
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 1.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- ETH Zurich, Switzerland (ETH-25_13-2)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vagus Nerve Stimulation Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
- Keywords
- vagal afferents, gut-brain axis, cognitive flexibility, reversal learning, object recognition memory, working memory, motivation, vagus nerve stimulation
- MeSH terms
- Abdomen, Afferent Pathways, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Reversal Learning, Vagus Nerve, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Recognition, Psychology, Rats
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