Study procedure and intervention
auricular branch vagus nerve, PD
PARKINSON'S DISEASE, CORTEX
The study flow is shown in Figure Flow diagram. fNIRS, functional near‐infrared spectroscopy; HCs, healthy control; PD, Parkinson's disease; taVNS, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation.Specifically, all PD patients were assessed for the severity of motor symptoms by the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale section III (UPDRS‐III),Subsequently, 26 PD patients were randomly allocated to receive active‐taVNS or sham‐taVNS stimulation in the outpatient department of Neurology (the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University). taVNS was conducted by transcutaneous electrical stimulation therapy instrument (tVNS501, RISHENA). Two modified dot‐like electrodes delivered the stimulation to the cymba conchae of left ear in the vicinity of the auricular branch vagus nerve (Figure (A) Position of the taVNS stimulation (cymba conchae); (B) Schematic illustration of the fNIRS layout (35 channels, 14 sources, and 14 detectors). The nodes represent optical probes. The arrangement covers the bilateral prefrontal cortex, pre‐motor cortex, supplementary motor cortex, primary motor cortex, and primary somatosensory cortex. Details are shown in Table 