Publications

Recent publications

2026 · Comprehensive Physiology

A Review of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Disease: Comprehensive Theory and Evidence for Mechanisms of Action

Bu Y, Liang A, Hoffman BU, et al. A synthesis of vagus nerve stimulation mechanisms and their translational relevance across organ systems.

2026 · Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy

Chronic pain as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease pathology: a longitudinal ADNI study

Bell TR, Franz CE, Fennema-Notestine C, et al.

2025 · Neuromodulation

Noninvasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation Reduces Withdrawal-Related Affective Distress and Improves Functional Outcomes in Alcohol Use Disorder: A Feasibility and Acceptability Pilot Study

Klaming R, Harlé KM, Lerman IR, et al.

2025 · Bioelectronic Medicine

Next generation bioelectronic medicine: making the case for non-invasive closed-loop autonomic neuromodulation

Lerman I, Bu Y, Singh R, et al.

Selected earlier publications

Nature Portfolio Communications Biology 2024

Non-invasive ventral cervical magnetoneurography as a proxy of in vivo lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation

Intelligent Systems & Applications 2024

Localizing Scan Targets from Human Pose for Autonomous Lung Ultrasound Imaging

Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics 2023

Multi-path decoder U-Net: A weakly trained real-time segmentation network for object detection and localization in ultrasound scans

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 2022

A flexible adhesive surface electrode array capable of cervical electroneurography during a sequential autonomic stress challenge

BRAIN STIMULATION 2022

Non-invasive cervical vagus nerve stimulation effects on reaction time and valence image anticipation response

HI-POCT EMBC 2022 IEEE

Measurement of Neuronal Signal Pre-to-Post Intravenous Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection

ICASSP 2022 IEEE

Object Detection and Tracking in Ultrasound Scans Using an Optical Flow and Semantic Segmentation Framework Based on Convolutional Neural Networks

Frontiers In Physiology

Peripheral Nerve Magnetoneurography With Optically Pumped Magnetometers

Bioelectronic Medicine

Sex-specific differences in the efficacy of traditional low frequency versus high frequency spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain

2021

IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC)

A CNN Segmentation-Based Approach to Object Detection and Tracking in Ultrasound Scans with Application to the Vagus Nerve Detection

2020

Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface

Early View:

Effects of Noninvasive Cervical Vagal Nerve Stimulation on Cognitive Performance But Not Brain Activation in Healthy Adults

2019

Spinal cord stimulation in chronic pain: evidence and theory for mechanisms of actionWell-established in the field of bioelectronic medicine, Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) offers an implantable, non-pharmacologic treatment for patients with intractable chronic pain conditions. Chronic pain is a widely heterogenous syndrome with regard to both pathophysiology and the resultant phenotype. Despite advances in our understanding of SCS-mediated antinociception, there still exists limited evidence clarifying the pathways recruited when patterned electric pulses are applied to the epidural space. The rapid clinical implementation of novel SCS methods including burst, high frequency and dorsal root ganglion SCS has provided the clinician with multiple options to treat refractory chronic pain. While compelling evidence for safety and efficacy exists in support of these novel paradigms, our understanding of their mechanisms of action (MOA) dramatically lags behind clinical data. In this review, we reconstruct the available basic science and clinical literature that offers support for mechanisms of both paresthesia spinal cord stimulation (P-SCS) and paresthesia-free spinal cord stimulation (PF-SCS). While P-SCS has been heavily examined since its inception, PF-SCS paradigms have recently been clinically approved with the support of limited preclinical research. Thus, wide knowledge gaps exist between their clinical efficacy and MOA. To close this gap, many rich investigative avenues for both P-SCS and PF-SCS are underway, which will further open the door for paradigm optimization, adjunctive therapies and new indications for SCS. As our understanding of these mechanisms evolves, clinicians will be empowered with the possibility of improving patient care using SCS to selectively target specific pathophysiological processes in chronic pain.

Marked Increases in Resting-State MEG Gamma-Band Activity in Combat-Related Mild Traumatic Brain InjuryAbstract. Combat-related mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a leading cause of sustained impairments in military service members and veterans. Recent animal

Noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation alters neural response and physiological autonomic tone to noxious thermal challengeThe mechanisms by which noninvasive vagal nerve stimulation (nVNS) affect central and peripheral neural circuits that subserve pain and autonomic physiology are not clear, and thus remain an area of intense investigation. Effects of nVNS vs sham stimulation on subject responses to five noxious thermal stimuli (applied to left lower extremity), were measured in 30 healthy subjects (n = 15 sham and n = 15 nVNS), with fMRI and physiological galvanic skin response (GSR). With repeated noxious thermal stimuli a group × time analysis showed a significantly (p < .001) decreased response with nVNS in bilateral primary and secondary somatosensory cortices (SI and SII), left dorsoposterior insular cortex, bilateral paracentral lobule, bilateral medial dorsal thalamus, right anterior cingulate cortex, and right orbitofrontal cortex. A group × time × GSR analysis showed a significantly decreased response in the nVNS group (p < .0005) bilaterally in SI, lower and mid medullary brainstem, and inferior occipital cortex. Finally, nVNS treatment showed decreased activity in pronociceptive brainstem nuclei (e.g. the reticular nucleus and rostral ventromedial medulla) and key autonomic integration nuclei (e.g. the rostroventrolateral medulla, nucleus ambiguous, and dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve). In aggregate, noninvasive vagal nerve stimulation reduced the physiological response to noxious thermal stimuli and impacted neural circuits important for pain processing and autonomic output.

Pscyhoneuroendocrinology

Posttraumatic stress disorder influences the nociceptive and intrathecal cytokine response to a painful stimulus in combat veterans

Neuromodulation

Noninvasive Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Decreases Whole Blood Culture‐Derived Cytokines and Chemokines: A Randomized, Blinded, Healthy Control Pilot Trial

Patents:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20190030334A1/en

https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CA421196768&_cid=P20-LU7O2W-86826-1

https://techtransfer.universityofcalifornia.edu/NCD/32582.html

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