ArticleScientific reports2021
Direct measurement of vagal tone in rats does not show correlation to HRV.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Auricular Vagus Neuromodulation-A Systematic Review on Quality of Evidence and Clinical Effects.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Non-Invasive Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Decreases Heart Rate Variability Independent of Caloric Load.Psychophysiology · 2025Trial
- Modelling the time-resolved modulations of cardiac activity in rats: A study on pharmacological autonomic stimulation.The Journal of physiology · 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
- Article
- Bradycardia is induced by hyperactivity of the vagus nerve and nucleus ambiguus during seizures propagating into the brainstem.Epilepsia open · 2025Article
- Accessing the viscera: Technologies for interoception research.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
- Effect of Anesthesia and Diurnal Variation on Chronic Vagus Nerve Activity in Rats.Journal of neuroscience research · 2025Article
- Bioelectronic Medicines-A Novel Approach of Therapeutics in Current Epoch.Current pharmaceutical design · 2025Review
- Article
- The moderating effect of resting heart rate variability on the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressed mood: an empirical study.Biologia futura · 2024Article
- Selective chronic recording in small nerve fascicles of sciatic nerve with carbon nanotube yarns in rats.Journal of neural engineering · 2024Article
- ECG-based estimation of respiration-induced autonomic modulation of AV nodal conduction during atrial fibrillation.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Motor Dysfunctions in Fibromyalgia Patients: The Importance of Breathing.Open access rheumatology : research and reviews · 2024Article
- Immediate and sustained increases in the activity of vagal preganglionic neurons during exercise and after exercise training.Cardiovascular research · 2023Article
- A Unifying Method to Study Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Dynamics Implemented in a New Toolbox.eNeuro · 2023Article
- Putative role of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation in cancer pathology and immunotherapy: Can this be a hidden treasure, especially for the elderly?Cancer medicine · 2023Review
- Heart Rate Asymmetry, Its Compensation, and Heart Rate Variability in Healthy Adults during 48-h Holter ECG Recordings.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Heart Rate Asymmetry in Healthy Children.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The vagus nerve is the largest autonomic nerve, innervating nearly every organ in the body. "Vagal tone" is a clinical measure believed to indicate overall levels of vagal activity, but is measured indirectly through the heart rate variability (HRV). Abnormal HRV has been associated with many severe conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, and hypertension. However, vagal tone has never been directly measured, leading to disagreements in its interpretation and influencing the effectiveness of vagal therapies. Using custom carbon nanotube yarn electrodes, we were able to chronically record neural activity from the left cervical vagus in both anesthetized and non-anesthetized rats. Here we show that tonic vagal activity does not correlate with common HRV metrics with or without anesthesia. Although we found that average vagal activity is increased during inspiration compared to expiration, this respiratory-linked signal was not correlated with HRV either. These results represent a clear advance in neural recording technology but also point to the need for a re-interpretation of the link between HRV and "vagal tone".
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.