ArticleScientific reports2018
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation and extinction of prepared fear: A conceptual non-replication.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sorting the mind: cognitive enhancement through transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Cardiovascular effects of auricular stimulation -a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation decreases brain activity during trauma scripts.Brain stimulationTrial
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Enhances Emotional Processing and Long-Term Recognition Memory: Electrophysiological Evidence Across Two Studies.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in healthy individuals, stroke, and Parkinson's disease: a narrative review of safety, parameters, and efficacy.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- A vagal route to memory: evidence from invasive and non-invasive electrical vagus nerve stimulation studies and areas for future clinical application.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Review
- Neuropsychobiology of fear-induced bradycardia in humans: progress and pitfalls.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- The gut-brain axis and cognitive control: A role for the vagus nerve.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2024Review
- Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) applications in cognitive aging: a review and commentary.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Review
- Immediate effects and duration of a short and single application of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on P300 event related potential.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Evaluation of taVNS for extreme environments: an exploration study of health benefits and stress operationality.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Evaluation of different vagus nerve stimulation anatomical targets in the ear by vagus evoked potential responses.Brain and behavior · 2021Article
- Transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation reduces sympathetic responses to stress in posttraumatic stress disorder: A double-blind, randomized, sham controlled trial.Neurobiology of stress · 2020Article
- Effect of transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation on the pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) response to stress: A randomized, sham controlled, double blind pilot study.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Article
- Promoting long-term inhibition of human fear responses by non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation during extinction training.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Does Not Affect Verbal Memory Performance in Healthy Volunteers.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- International Consensus Based Review and Recommendations for Minimum Reporting Standards in Research on Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (Version 2020).Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Transcutaneous stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (tVNS) may accelerate fear extinction in healthy humans. Here, we aimed to investigate this hypothesis in healthy young participants in a prepared learning paradigm, using spider pictures as conditioned stimuli. After a fear conditioning phase, participants were randomly allocated to receive tVNS (final N = 42) or sham stimulation (final N = 43) during an extinction phase. Conditioned fear was assessed using US expectancy ratings, skin conductance and fear potentiated startle responses. After successful fear acquisition, participants in both groups showed a reduction of fear over the course of the extinction phase. There were no between-group differences in extinction rates for physiological indices of fear. Contrary to previous findings, participants in the tVNS condition also did not show accelerated declarative extinction learning. Participants in the tVNS condition did have lower initial US expectancy ratings for the CS- trials than those who received sham stimulation, which may indicate an enhanced processing of safety cues due to tVNS. In conclusion, the expected accelerated extinction due to tVNS was not observed. The results from this study call for more research on the optimal tVNS stimulation intensity settings.
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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.