ReviewBrain research2018
Effects of vagal neuromodulation on feeding behavior.
Review in Brain research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vagus nerve stimulation for focal seizures.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Ameliorating Effects and Autonomic Mechanisms of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Abdominal Pain in Patients With Functional Dyspepsia and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2026Trial
- Article
- Role of physical exercise, vagal nerve stimulation, and vagotomy in inflammatory bowel disease.World journal of gastroenterology · 2025Review
- Acute Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation Modulates Gastric Slow Waves in the Distal Rat Stomach.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2025Article
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation inhibits food intake and body weight gain through the orexin dependent pathway in high fat diet mice.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Recent advances in facilitating the translation of bioelectronic medicine therapies.Current opinion in biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Investigating the modulation of gastric sensations and disposition toward food with taVNS.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Acute sub-diaphragmatic anterior vagus nerve stimulation increases peripheral glucose uptake in anaesthetized rats.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2023Article
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation as a potential novel treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome.Scientific reports · 2023Review
- Autonomic control of energy balance and glucose homeostasis.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2022Review
- The model of litter size reduction induces long-term disruption of the gut-brain axis: An explanation for the hyperphagia of Wistar rats of both sexes.Physiological reports · 2022Article
- Surgical placement of customized abdominal vagus nerve stimulating and gastrointestinal serosal surface recording electrodes.Journal of surgical case reports · 2021Article
- Closed-loop neuromodulation will increase the utility of mouse models in Bioelectronic Medicine.Bioelectronic medicine · 2021Article
- Roles for the gut microbiota in regulating neuronal feeding circuits.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2021Review
- Immunity and the carotid body: implications for metabolic diseases.Bioelectronic medicine · 2020Review
- Rapid and transient enhancement of thalamic information transmission induced by vagus nerve stimulation.Journal of neural engineering · 2020Article
- Bioelectronic Medicine: From Preclinical Studies on the Inflammatory Reflex to New Approaches in Disease Diagnosis and Treatment.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2020Review
- Effect of Short-Term Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) on Brain Processing of Food Cues: An Electrophysiological Study.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
- Quantified Morphology of the Cervical and Subdiaphragmatic Vagus Nerves of Human, Pig, and Rat.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Implanted vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for obesity was recently approved by the FDA. However, its efficacy and mechanisms of action remain unclear. Herein, we synthesize clinical and preclinical effects of VNS on feeding behavior and energy balance and discuss engineering considerations for understanding and improving the therapy. Clinical cervical VNS (≤30 Hz) to treat epilepsy or depression has produced mixed effects on weight loss as a side effect, albeit in uncontrolled, retrospective studies. Conversely, preclinical studies (cervical and subdiaphragmatic VNS) mostly report decreased food intake and either decreased weight gain or weight loss. More recent clinical studies report weight loss in response to kilohertz frequency VNS applied to the subdiaphragmatic vagi, albeit with a large placebo effect. Rather than eliciting neural activity, this therapy putatively blocks conduction in the vagus nerves. Overall, stimulation parameters lack systematic exploration, optimization, and justification based on target nerve fibers and therapeutic outcomes. The vagus nerve transduces, transmits, and integrates important neural (efferent and afferent), humoral, energetic, and inflammatory information between the gut and brain. Thus, improved understanding of the biophysics, electrophysiology, and (patho)physiology has the potential to advance VNS as an effective therapy for a wide range of diseases.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.