Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a non-invasive, well-tolerated and inexpensive technique to stimulate the norepinephrinergic and other pathways in the brain. These pathways serve brain areas implicated in memory, emotion and cognitive control. We investigated the effect of tVNS on the ability of healthy adults to recall the order of words in a word list. Healthy young adults were tested in two sessions, once with tVNS (tragus), once with sham (earlobe) stimulation, counterbalanced over sessions (N = 29). A separate group (N = 33) received no stimulation. Between-group comparisons showed that tVNS was associated with higher accuracy on the order memory task, but only when the items were phonologically similar. These results are interpreted as supporting the idea that tVNS enhances selective attention and inhibitory control when required by the task. tVNS is therefore a promising method for neuromodulation of language and memory, and for the development of methods to enhance memory and learning of language, and other skills.

经皮迷走神经刺激（tVNS）是一种非侵入性，耐受性良好且廉价的技术，可刺激大脑中的去甲肾上腺素能及其他途径。这些途径服务于涉及记忆，情感和认知控制的大脑区域。我们调查了tVNS对健康成年人回忆单词列表中单词顺序的能力的影响。健康的青年人分两次接受测试，一次接受tVNS（耳镜）治疗，一次接受假（耳垂）刺激，在整个过程中保持平衡（N = 29）。一个单独的组（N = 33）没有受到刺激。组间比较表明，tVNS与顺序记忆任务的准确性较高，但仅在语音上相似时才如此。这些结果被解释为支持tVNS在任务需要时增强选择性注意和抑制控制的想法。因此，tVNS是用于语言和记忆的神经调节，以及用于开发增强记忆和语言学习以及其他技能的方法的有前途的方法。