ArticleNature communications2020
Vagus nerve stimulation boosts the drive to work for rewards.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 48 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.
tVNS to Provide Mechanistic Insights Into the Relationship Between Systemic Inflammation and Altered Motivation and Mood in Healthy Individuals Who Are Overweight or Obese
Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Approach-Avoidance Behavior in Anhedonia and Anxiety
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
- The heart knows best: baseline heart rate variability as guide to transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in depression.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Electroceutical enhancement of self-compassion training using transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation: results from a preregistered fully factorial randomized controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Non-Invasive Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Decreases Heart Rate Variability Independent of Caloric Load.Psychophysiology · 2025Trial
- Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation in epilepsy patients enhances cooperative behavior in the prisoner's dilemma task.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Efficacy and EEG-ECG mechanisms of taVNS combined with TEAS for negative symptoms of schizophrenia: a protocol for a 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Disulfidptosis: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- tVNS and obesity-related inflammation: a prospective sham-controlled randomized crossover study protocol.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Obesity is associated with greater variability of reward signals in the nucleus accumbens.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Neural mechanisms linking Western diet consumption and cognitive impairment: a role for the vagus nerve.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2026Review
- Arousal shapes motivation: an integrative framework for understanding motivational deficits.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Auricular vagus nerve stimulation drives analgesia via an auricle-brain axis in a mouse model of neuropathic pain.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- A Review of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Disease: Comprehensive Theory and Evidence for Mechanisms of Action.Comprehensive physiology · 2026Review
- Effects of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation on pupil dilation are dependent on sensory matching.iScience · 2026Article
- Motivation and reward processing across sex/gender and the menstrual cycle: a biopsychosocial perspective.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Glucose levels are associated with mood, but the association is mediated by ratings of metabolic state.EBioMedicine · 2026Observational
- The gut-brain vagal axis governs mesolimbic dopamine dynamics and reward events.Science advances · 2026Article
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Treating Emotional Dysregulation and Inflammation in Common Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Modulation of reward positivity and blink rate in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during and following transcranial direct current stimulation.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Interoceptive feedback transmitted via the vagus nerve plays a vital role in motivation by tuning actions according to physiological needs. Whereas vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) reinforces actions in animals, motivational effects elicited by VNS in humans are still largely elusive. Here, we applied non-invasive transcutaneous auricular VNS (taVNS) on the left or right ear while participants exerted effort to earn rewards using a randomized cross-over design (vs. sham). In line with preclinical studies, acute taVNS enhances invigoration of effort, and stimulation on the left side primarily facilitates invigoration for food rewards. In contrast, we do not find conclusive evidence that acute taVNS affects effort maintenance or wanting ratings. Collectively, our results suggest that taVNS enhances reward-seeking by boosting invigoration, not effort maintenance and that the stimulation side affects generalization beyond food reward. Thus, taVNS may enhance the pursuit of prospective rewards which may pave avenues to treat motivational deficiencies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.