Trial reportScientific reports2019
No modulation of pupil size and event-related pupil response by transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS).
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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
36 citing papers in PubMed.
- The effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on romantic couples' physiology and behavior during conflict.Anxiety, stress, and coping · 2026Trial
- Can transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation mitigate vigilance loss? Examining the effects of stimulation at individualized versus constant current intensity.Psychophysiology · 2025Trial
- Auricular Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Specifically Enhances Working Memory Gate Closing Mechanism: A System Neurophysiological Study.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Trial
- Effects of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation on pupil dilation are dependent on sensory matching.iScience · 2026Article
- No Effect of Continuous Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation on the P3, the P600, or Physiological Markers of Noradrenergic Activity in an Oddball and Sentence Comprehension Task.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Vagus nerve stimulation alters task-evoked pupillary responses in older but not younger adults: A single-blind active sham-controlled crossover trial.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- No significant modulation of pressure pain sensitivity and cardioception after transauricular vagal nerve stimulation.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Enhances Emotional Processing and Long-Term Recognition Memory: Electrophysiological Evidence Across Two Studies.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Investigating the modulation of gastric sensations and disposition toward food with taVNS.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Three Hundred Hertz Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) Impacts Pupil Size Non-Linearly as a Function of Intensity.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
- Effects of off-line auricular transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) on a short-term memory task: a pilot study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Stimulate to Remember? The Effects of Short Burst of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) on Memory Performance and Pupil Dilation.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Impact of Stimulation Duration in taVNS-Exploring Multiple Physiological and Cognitive Outcomes.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- The metabolic role of vitamin D in children's neurodevelopment: a network study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Improve Emotional State.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Advances in VNS efficiency and mechanisms of action on cognitive functions.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Review
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Modulates Performance but Not Pupil Size During Nonnative Speech Category Learning.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2023Article
- Phasic, Event-Related Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Modifies Behavioral, Pupillary, and Low-Frequency Oscillatory Power Responses.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) bears therapeutic potential for a wide range of medical conditions. However, previous studies have found substantial interindividual variability in responsiveness to taVNS, and no reliable predictive biomarker for stimulation success has been developed so far. In this study, we investigate pupil size and event-related pupil response as candidate biomarkers. Both measures have a direct physiological link to the activity of the locus coeruleus (LC), a brainstem structure and the main source of norepinephrine in the brain. LC activation is considered one of the key mechanisms of action of taVNS, therefore, we expected a clear increase of the pupillary measures under taVNS compared to sham (placebo) stimulation, such that it could serve as a prospective predictor for individual clinical and physiological taVNS effects in future studies. We studied resting pupil size and pupillary responses to target stimuli in an auditory oddball task in 33 healthy young volunteers. We observed stronger pupil responses to target than to standard stimuli. However, and contrary to our hypothesis, neither pupil size nor the event-related pupil response nor behavioral performance were modulated by taVNS. We discuss potential explanations for this negative finding and its implications for future clinical investigation and development of taVNS.
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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.