Their (ElectroCore's) transcutaneous stimulation protocol is very cool. Being able to lower the risk profile (eliminating invasive surgery) may mitigate somewhat the fairly low efficacies that have been demonstrated for previous VN stimulators. But I'd still be quite worried about unintentional activation/blockade of non-target branches of the vagus nerve, affecting the internal organs, and the heart in particular.
The article says that it's "just a matter of hitting a sweet spot of signal strength", implying that they are trying to take advantage of the topographic organization of the nerve's fascicles. My understanding, however, is that achieving spatial selectivity has been hard enough with implantable cuff electrodes. I'm not sure how they are going to achieve it with a (handheld?) device.
The article says that it's "just a matter of hitting a sweet spot of signal strength", implying that they are trying to take advantage of the topographic organization of the nerve's fascicles. My understanding, however, is that achieving spatial selectivity has been hard enough with implantable cuff electrodes. I'm not sure how they are going to achieve it with a (handheld?) device.
Still, exciting times for electroceuticals!