Autonomic response and Fos expression in the NTS following intermittent vagal stimulation: importance of pulse frequency.

Chronic intermittent stimulation of the vagus nerve (VNS) is an approved adjunctive therapy of refractory epilepsy. Nevertheless, the circuits triggered by VNS under the variable conditions used in patients are not well understood. We analyzed the effect of increasing pulse frequency on physiological variables (intragastric pressure, cardiac and respiratory frequencies) and neuronal activation in the solitary tract nucleus (NTS), the entry level of peripheral vagal afferents, in the rat.