Very pleased to share our latest work, led by Prof. Jeyoung Jung: “Transcutaneous auricular Vagus nerve stimulation for working memory enhancement: A comparative study of electrical and ultrasound stimulation” In this study, Dr Alicia Falcon-Caro directly compared electrical (E-taVNS) and ultrasound (U-taVNS) transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for enhancing working memory. 🧠 Using a sham-controlled, within-subject design and a 3-back working-memory task, we found that: • Active taVNS enhanced working-memory sensitivity (d′) from pre- to post-stimulation. • The treatment effect did not significantly differ between electrical and ultrasound taVNS, although potentially meaningful modality-specific differences remain to be established. • Baseline anxiety predicted individual responsiveness to stimulation, highlighting the importance of individual variability in neuromodulation. • Ultrasound stimulation showed promising tolerability, with less reported skin irritation than electrical stimulation. Together, these findings add to growing evidence that non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation can modulate human memory, while highlighting ultrasound as a promising alternative approach for peripheral neuromodulation. sciencedirect.com/science/ar… #ultrasound #neuromodulation #cognition #zenbud

Our two research challenges are now live on the Encode: AI for Science Challengescape - connecting bottlenecks with the AI talent that can solve them You can find our projects by filtering for 'Nottingham' encode-challengescape.pillar… Take a look and reach out if you could help...

Do you have 3+ years of postdoctoral experience and want to develop noninvasive interventions for schizophrenia? Contact me if you want to look into transcranial focused ultrasound or ultrasound vagus nerve stimulation approaches at our N3 Centre for Neurotechnology, Neuromodulation, and Neurotherapeutics. Your MQ Research Fellowship would complement our ongoing research as part of our closed-loop noninvasive neuromodulation MRC programme grant... mqmentalhealth.org/schizophr… #mentalhealth #schizophrenia #TUS #ultrasound #psychosis

While there are several novel interventions for mental health, including noninvasive brain stimulation, few make it into the UK healthcare system. Join the campaign to make more mental health treatments accessible in the NHS: mood-disorders.co.uk/parliam… #depression #neuromodulation #tms #fus #tus #ultrasound

I get a lot of spam from predatory journals, but this is really low effort: 🤣

Open PhD position in our lab: noninvasive ultrasound vagus nerve stimulation as an intervention for mental health conditions such as depression Deadline: Fri 9 Jan Apply here: findaphd.com/phds/project/te…

Searching for a Christmas present for a #neuroscience, #psychology, or #NeuralNetworks researcher? You may consider 'Changing Connectomes: Evolution, Development, and Dynamics in Network Neuroscience' from @mitpress mitpress.mit.edu/books/chang…

Happy to be involved in this research, led by my colleague Dr Jeyoung Jung: Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation enhances emotional bias towards happiness in healthy young adults: A comparative study of electrical and ultrasound stimulation biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… Thrilled to share our latest preprint exploring how non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation can shape emotional processing in healthy young adults. 🔍 What we investigated: We compared electrical (E-taVNS) and ultrasound (U-taVNS) stimulation (zenbud.health ) while participants completed a facial emotion bias task. ✨ Key findings: Both E-taVNS and U-taVNS shifted emotional bias toward more positive interpretations, even for ambiguous faces. Comparable efficacy across modalities. Ultrasound stimulation showed better tolerability, suggesting strong potential for long-term use. Interoceptive awareness predicted individual variability in taVNS effects. 💡 Why it matters: These results highlight taVNS as a promising, well-tolerated tool for modulating emotional bias, with potential applications in mood and anxiety disorders. @FUSFoundation @NeurGear #mood #neuromodulation

Good to see so many Nottingham researchers at the @Brainbox_Init neuromodulation meeting! A great meeting with ideas that we can bring home to our N3 neurotechnology centre nottingham.ac.uk/news/centre… #tus #tms #tacs

New: Zenbud ultrasound vagus nerve stimulation sham device cannot be distinguished from active device mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/9/986 We are now performing sham-controlled studies to observe cognitive and physiological effects... #ultrasound #vagusnerve #neuromodulation @MDPIOpenAccess