ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2018
Vagal Tank Theory: The Three Rs of Cardiac Vagal Control Functioning - Resting, Reactivity, and Recovery.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 138 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
138 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Associations Between Positive Affect and Heart Rate Variability: A Systematic Review.Current cardiology reports · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Heart Rate Variability-An Index of the Efficacy of Complementary Therapies in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Can Reactivity of Heart Rate Variability Be a Potential Biomarker and Monitoring Tool to Promote Healthy Aging? A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Associations Between Interoception, Vagal Tone, and Emotional Regulation: Potential Applications for Mental Health, Wellbeing, Psychological Flexibility, and Chronic Conditions.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Pooled it
- A study on the differences in recovery effects of different types of nutritional supplements on competitive performance of esports athletes under mental fatigue.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Trial
- The Effects of Excessive Arousing Video Gaming on vmHRV During Sleep in Habitual Gamers.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Trial
- Pupilometer efficacy in monitoring anxiety in undergraduate medical students during high-fidelity clinical simulation.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Autonomic nervous system activity correlates with peak experiences induced by DMT and predicts increases in well-being.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- Relationships Among Heart Rate Variability, Perceived Social Support, and Hopelessness in Adults With Ischemic Heart Disease.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Trial
- The Effects of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback on HRV Reactivity and Recovery During and After Anger Recall Task for Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2022Trial
- Cardiac Autonomic Dynamics Differentially Shape Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind: Evidence From Respiratory Manipulation.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- A Narrative Review of HRV Metric Selection for Applied Monitoring: RMSSD as the Default Metric for Sport and Exercise.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Review
- Heart Rate Variability and Body Motion as Digital Biomarkers of Task Workload During Military En Route Critical Care Simulations.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Baseline vagal tone and pain reactivity: linking autonomic function to endogenous pain inhibition in women.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Utility of Heart Rate Variability and Exertional Task Completion During Recovery of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Active Duty Service Members.Military medicine · 2026Article
- Heart Rate Fragmentation: A Novel Analytic Approach to Detect Allostatic Load Among Healthy Adults.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Article
- Heart Rate Variability and Slow-Paced Breathing in Mothers of Children with Disabilities: Autonomic Flexibility Under Chronic Caregiving Stress.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Article
- Perceived workload and heart rate variability in elite military pilots recovering from operational maintenance and air demonstration flights.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Slow paced breathing and power posing: a pre-competitive ritual during an American football season.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
78 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to set the stage for the vagal tank theory, showcasing a functional resource account for self-regulation. The vagal tank theory, building on neurophysiological, cognitive and social psychology approaches, will introduce a physiological indicator for self-regulation that has mainly been ignored from cognitive and social psychology, cardiac vagal control (also referred to as cardiac vagal activity). Cardiac vagal control reflects the contribution of the vagus nerve, the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system, to cardiac regulation. We propose cardiac vagal control to be an indicator of how efficiently self-regulatory resources are mobilized and used. Three systematic levels of cardiac vagal control analysis are suggested: resting, reactivity, and recovery. Based on this physiological indicator we derive the metaphor of the vagal tank, which can get depleted and replenished. Overall, the vagal tank theory will enable to integrate previous findings from different disciplines and to stimulate new research questions, predictions, and designs regarding self-regulation.
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