Seth Hays pairing VNS with rehab for better patient outomes

Seth Hays's research focus at the University of Texas at Dallas is enhancing neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to change, in order to treat neurological disease. The majority of current studies evaluate the ability of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a putative targeted plasticity therapy, to improve recovery in models of motor dysfunction

Top 3 Takeaways:

• "VNS itself  is not a thing unto itself. It's really the combination of VNS with the rehabilitation that's producing the effects that we see"

• "We think this is most effective when there's really some deficit that you have trouble overcoming the cognitive reserve. If you're in deficit and you can't get over that hump, VNS might be a way to promote some of that.
• "It's a simple concept that you're pairing their modulator release with VNS, with rehab, you put rehab on steroids in way that really might benefit patients."

0:30 Do you want to introduce yourself?

2:15 "This targeted learning neuro-plasticity how does it work?"

3:45 "Is this something that people feel, do they feel some kind of like a tingling?"

5:15 What kind of effects do you see?"

8:00 "What exactly do you use? How do you interface with the nerves?"

13:00 So it's just bulk activation?

14:30 "You were talking about testing these devices and do you want to talk a little bit about this?"

19:00 "What's something that you believe that most people don't"

22:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"