1 Abstract
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is FDA approved for stroke rehabilitation, epilepsy, and depression; however, the vagus functional anatomy underlying the implant is poorly understood. We used microCT to quantify fascicular structure and neuroanatomy within human cervical vagus nerves. Fascicles split or merged every ~560 μm (17.8 ± 6.1 events/cm). The high degree of fascicular splitting and merging in humans may explain the clinical heterogeneity in patient responses.
Competing Interest Statement
KAL is a scientific board member and has stock interests in NeuroOne Medical Inc., a company developing next generation epilepsy monitoring devices. KAL is also paid member of the scientific advisory board of Cala Health, Blackfynn, Abbott and Battelle. KAL also is a paid consultant for Galvani and Boston Scientific. KAL and AJS are consultants to and co-founders of Neuronoff Inc. None of these associations are directly relevant to the work presented in this manuscript.
Footnotes
Revised introduction; added acknowledements.
