Trial reportJMIR mHealth and uHealth2020
Digital Cardiovascular Biomarker Responses to Transcutaneous Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation: State-Space Modeling, Prediction, and Simulation.
Trial report in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02992899 (Closed Loop Vagal Nerve Stimulation in Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 21 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.
Closed Loop Vagal Nerve Stimulation in Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation modulates stress-induced plasma ghrelin levels: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Trial
- Robust Estimation of Respiratory Variability Uncovers Correlates of Limbic Brain Activity and Transcutaneous Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation in the Context of Traumatic Stress.IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Autonomic and neural responses to varying transcutaneous cervical electrical stimulation parameters.Bioelectronic medicine · 2026Article
- Computational Insights Into Smart Bioelectronics in Digital Health Care (2020-2024): Topic Modeling Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Review
- A pilot study of brain correlates of long-term treatment with transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation in posttraumatic stress disorder.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2026Article
- Elucidating the Reactivity of Reflectance-Based Core-Body Photoplethysmogram to Posture and Respiratory Changes.IEEE sensors journal · 2025Article
- Non-Pharmacological Mitigation of Acute Mental Stress-Induced Sympathetic Arousal: Comparison Between Median Nerve Stimulation and Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Accrued reductions in heart rate following transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation in adults with posttraumatic stress disorder.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Acute and long-term effects of COVID-19 on brain and mental health: A narrative review.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Review
- Macrophages as central mediators of sympathetic neuro-immune interplay in autoimmunity.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Optimizing Noninvasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Protocol for a Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- Transcutaneous auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Median Nerve Stimulation reduce acute stress in young healthy adults: a single-blind sham-controlled crossover study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Noninvasive Vagal Nerve Stimulation for Opioid Use Disorder.Annals of depression and anxiety · 2023Article
- Transcutaneous Cervical Vagal Nerve Stimulation in Patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A Pilot Study of Effects on PTSD Symptoms and Interleukin-6 Response to Stress.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2021Article
- Transcutaneous Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation Inhibits the Reciprocal of the Pulse Transit Time's Responses to Traumatic Stress in Posttraumatic Stress DisorderAnnual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference · 2021Article
- A method to quantify autonomic nervous system function in healthy, able-bodied individuals.Bioelectronic medicine · 2021Article
- Transcutaneous Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation Lengthens Exhalation in the Context of Traumatic Stress.... IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics. IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics · 2021Article
- 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
- 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
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTranscutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation (tcVNS) is a promising alternative to implantable stimulation of the vagus nerve. With demonstrated potential in myriad applications, ranging from systemic inflammation reduction to traumatic stress attenuation, closed-loop tcVNS during periods of risk could improve treatment efficacy and reduce ineffective delivery. However, achieving this requires a deeper understanding of biomarker changes over time.
objectiveThe aim of the present study was to reveal the dynamics of relevant cardiovascular biomarkers, extracted from wearable sensing modalities, in response to tcVNS.
methodsTwenty-four human subjects were recruited for a randomized double-blind clinical trial, for whom electrocardiography and photoplethysmography were used to measure heart rate and photoplethysmogram amplitude responses to tcVNS, respectively. Modeling these responses in state-space, we (1) compared the biomarkers in terms of their predictability and active vs sham differentiation, (2) studied the latency between stimulation onset and measurable effects, and (3) visualized the true and model-simulated biomarker responses to tcVNS.
resultsThe models accurately predicted future heart rate and photoplethysmogram amplitude values with root mean square errors of approximately one-fifth the standard deviations of the data. Moreover, (1) the photoplethysmogram amplitude showed superior predictability (P=.03) and active vs sham separation compared to heart rate; (2) a consistent delay of greater than 5 seconds was found between tcVNS onset and cardiovascular effects; and (3) dynamic characteristics differentiated responses to tcVNS from the sham stimulation.
conclusionsThis work furthers the state of the art by modeling pertinent biomarker responses to tcVNS. Through subsequent analysis, we discovered three key findings with implications related to (1) wearable sensing devices for bioelectronic medicine, (2) the dominant mechanism of action for tcVNS-induced effects on cardiovascular physiology, and (3) the existence of dynamic biomarker signatures that can be leveraged when titrating therapy in closed loop.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02992899; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02992899. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1016/j.brs.2019.08.002.
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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.