Resting‐state functional connectivity changes with microburst vagus nerve stimulation therapy

We investigated how stimulating the vagus nerve in a specific manner may reduce seizure frequency in people with drug-resistant epilepsy through its actions on how a part of the brain called the thalamus is functionally connected to other brain regions. People with focal seizures showed a different pattern of changes in thalamus functional connectivity than those with generalized seizures after 6 months of stimulation. People with focal seizures also showed that stronger functional connectivity between the thalamus and other brain regions at baseline was related to a greater decrease in seizure frequency after 12 months of stimulation.