Mechanisms and Applications of Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Neuroplasticity and Neurorehabilitation

Dear Colleagues,

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), first approved for drug-resistant epilepsy and depression, is now recognized as a potent neuromodulatory approach to shaping experience-dependent plasticity by recruiting brainstem neuromodulatory nuclei, modulating inflammation, and reorganizing large-scale brain networks.

This Special Issue will highlight mechanistic and translational work clarifying how invasive and non-invasive VNS protocols induce neuroplastic changes and how these mechanisms can be harnessed to enhance motor, sensory, cognitive, and affective recovery across neurological disorders.

We particularly welcome studies combining VNS with rehabilitation training for stroke and traumatic brain injury, neuromodulation for movement disorders, tinnitus, chronic pain, and psychiatric conditions, as well as advanced neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and computational modelling of VNS-evoked network dynamics.

We invite original research, rigorous clinical trials, benchmark protocols, and systematic or scoping reviews that refine stimulation paradigms, identify response biomarkers, and develop personalized, mechanism-based VNS strategies for neurorehabilitation.

Dr. Matteo Maria Ottaviani
Guest Editor

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