Like the microbiome, the vagus nerve is a part of the body you’ve probably heard a lot about whenever you read health news. There’s been seemingly endless interest in it as medical research finds that this bizarre biological cable may, when stimulated, potentially help with epilepsy, depression, stroke recovery, and migraines.
It would almost seem like the miracle wonder drug being sold by a con artist pulling a wagon of elixirs through the Old West, if there weren’t a growing pile of research behind it. None of it is definitive, but it strongly suggests that stimulating this nerve in your neck might have a range of benefits.
Now, according to a study published in iScience, we can add learning to the list. At least in mice.
This Experimental Treatment Could Help the Brain Hold Onto What It Learns
Researchers at Tohoku University electrically stimulated the vagus nerve in mice after they completed a visual learning task. The stimulation didn’t make the animals immediately better at learning. The improvement appeared over the following days. This suggests to the researchers that the treatment might influence the process that our brain goes through that makes our memories last.
Scientists often focus on the vagus nerve’s power to alter brain chemistry, especially the signaling involving neurotransmitters. The new research adds texture to this idea, suggesting that vagus nerve stimulation produced rhythmic changes in blood volume near the cerebellar region involved in the mice’s eye movement task. Mice with larger vascular fluctuations generally performed better on the task days later.
The researchers think these improved blood flow rhythms might provide the energy and materials the brain needs to reinforce new connections. It’s an early-stage finding that future studies will need to elaborate on, but the study did establish an association between vascular activity and improved learning, which should be a strong foundation for future research.
Again, it’s just a study of mice. All this needs to be upscaled to humans eventually. The study does not in any way definitively prove that vagus nerve stimulation makes a person smarter, or that there is any device currently being marketed to you in Instagram or LinkedIn ads that will turn you into a hyper-genius in four easy payments.
All the study does is suggest that when we shake this one particular string in our body, it may be jolting our blood vessels just enough to help you retain memories.
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