{
  "abstract": "Adult-born neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus support the encoding of distinct representations for similar contexts, a dentate gyrus-dependent function underlying contextual discrimination. Impairment in this function contributes to fear generalization observed in posttraumatic stress disorder. Vagus nerve stimulation is under investigation as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder and has been shown to influence hippocampal plasticity, including adult neurogenesis. This raises the question of how vagus nerve stimulation-induced changes in dentate gyrus neurogenesis and plasticity relate to contextual discrimination behaviour. Here, we tested whether vagus nerve stimulation enhances contextual fear discrimination in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats and whether these effects depend on BDNF-TrkB signalling. Rats received 3 days of home cage vagus nerve stimulation using parameters previously shown to enhance memory. Home cage vagus nerve stimulation increased markers of dentate gyrus neurogenesis. The number of Ki67- and doublecortin-expressing cells was greater in the dentate gyrus of vagus nerve stimulation-treated rats than in controls (P < 0.005) and (P < 0.05), respectively. However, home cage vagus nerve stimulation did not alter contextual discrimination when delivered alone, compared with control treatment (P = 0.45). Similarly, vagus nerve stimulation delivered only during conditioning had no behavioural effect (P = 0.64). In contrast, combining home cage stimulation with vagus nerve stimulation during conditioning significantly enhanced contextual discrimination between shock-associated and similar contexts (P < 0.001). Pharmacological blockade of tyrosine kinase activity at TrkB receptors with K252a prevented both the behavioural enhancement and the vagus nerve stimulation-associated increase in neurogenesis markers. Rats treated with vagus nerve stimulation and vehicle showed better discrimination than rats treated with vagus nerve stimulation and the TrkB inhibitor K252a (P < 0.001), and K252a treatment significantly reduced the number of cells expressing Ki67 (P < 0.005) and doublecortin (P < 0.05) following vagus nerve stimulation. These findings demonstrate that vagus nerve stimulation is associated with BDNF-TrkB signalling-dependent increases in markers of dentate gyrus neurogenesis and enhancement of contextual fear discrimination.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Neuroscience, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.",
    "Texas Biomedical Devices Center, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Syed Ahsan Raza"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Débora R Calderón-Williams"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Navya S Grandhe"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ishayu P Gupta"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Christa K McIntyre",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8138-5023"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/05mkdpswzmdyg.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1093/braincomms/fcag387",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13695415",
  "id": "05mkdpswzmdyg",
  "issns": [
    "2632-1297"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42927139",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Memory and Neural Mechanisms"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221149992",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13695415?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13695415",
  "pmid": "42927139",
  "published": "2026-10-10",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/05mkdpswzmdyg.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:18Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42927139",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42927139"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2805|Memory and Neural Mechanisms",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Vagus nerve stimulation enhances context discrimination and dentate gyrus neurogenesis through Trk signaling.",
  "title_text": "Vagus nerve stimulation enhances context discrimination and dentate gyrus neurogenesis through Trk signaling.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:18Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/05mkdpswzmdyg",
  "venue": "Brain communications",
  "versions": []
}