Trial reportInternational journal of environmental research and public health2023
Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Facilitates Cortical Arousal and Alertness.
Trial report in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Sorting the mind: cognitive enhancement through transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation may improve cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric diseases-a systematic review.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Bilateral transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of insomnia in breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- The effects of non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on resting-state delta oscillation: a randomized, double-blinded, sham-control trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Non-Invasive Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Decreases Heart Rate Variability Independent of Caloric Load.Psychophysiology · 2025Trial
- Article
- Effects of stimulation frequency and pulse width in transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on finger somatosensory function.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on vigilance, cognition, and mood during military exercise with acute sleep deprivation.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2026Article
- A Review of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Disease: Comprehensive Theory and Evidence for Mechanisms of Action.Comprehensive physiology · 2026Review
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation: mechanisms, applications, and research progress.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Non-invasive neuroregulation techniques applied to patients with consciousness disorders: a narrative review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Review
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Treating Emotional Dysregulation and Inflammation in Common Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- An experimental paradigm to manipulate physiological arousal using consecutive successes.iScience · 2025Article
- Awakening Recovery: Enhancing Orexinergic Tone After Acute CNS Damage.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Case report: Monitoring consciousness with fNIRS in a patient with prolonged reduced consciousness following hemorrhagic stroke undergoing adjunct taVNS therapy.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neurotechnology for enhancing human operation of robotic and semi-autonomous systems.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2025Review
- The vagus nerve: a cornerstone for mental health and performance optimization in recreation and elite sports.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- 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
- Vibrotactile auricular vagus nerve stimulation alters limbic system connectivity in humans: A pilot study.PloS one · 2025Article
- The latest reports and treatment methods on polycystic ovary syndrome.Annals of medicine · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a promising noninvasive technique with potential beneficial effects on human emotion and cognition, including cortical arousal and alertness. However, it remains unclear how taVNS could improve cortical arousal and alertness, which are crucial for consciousness and daily task performance. Here, we aimed to estimate the modulatory effect of taVNS on cortical arousal and alertness and to reveal its underlying neural mechanisms. Sixty subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to either the taVNS group (receiving taVNS for 20 min) or the control group (receiving taVNS for 30 s). The effects of taVNS were evaluated behaviorally using a cue-target pattern task, and neurologically using a resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG). We found that taVNS facilitated the reaction time for the targets requiring right-hand responses and attenuated high-frequency alpha oscillations under the close-eye resting state. Importantly, taVNS-modulated alpha oscillations were positively correlated with the facilitated target detection performance, i.e., reduced reaction time. Furthermore, microstate analysis of the resting-state EEG when the eyes were closed illustrated that taVNS reduced the mean duration of microstate C, which has been proven to be associated with alertness. Altogether, this work provided novel evidence suggesting that taVNS could be an enhancer of both cortical arousal and alertness.
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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.