ArticleBrain stimulation
Causal influence of brainstem response to transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on cardiovagal outflow.
Article in Brain stimulation. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cardiac Vagal Efficiency Is Enhanced by Percutaneous Auricular Neurostimulation in Adolescents With Nausea: Moderation by Antidepressant Drug Exposure.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2025Trial
- A Multiscale Spatiotemporal Causal Mapping Algorithm for Revealing Neural Network Mechanisms of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Balancing the autonomic scale: the promise of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in combating cardiovascular diseases.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Review
- Electroacupuncture in glycemic control: Transitioning from clinical controversies to potential basic research.World journal of diabetes · 2025Review
- Investigating the modulation of gastric sensations and disposition toward food with taVNS.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation inhibits mental stress-induced cortisol release-Potential implications for inflammatory conditions.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Cholinergic reflex control of inflammation: mechanistic and translational advances in transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation across rheumatic, metabolic, and postoperative disorders.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Transcutaneous auricular neurostimulation to reduce heavy menstrual bleeding in women with and without von Willebrand disease.Frontiers in medicine · 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 stimulation site and protocol on autonomic responses to auricular vagus nerve stimulation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe autonomic response to transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been linked to the engagement of brainstem circuitry modulating autonomic outflow. However, the physiological mechanisms supporting such efferent vagal responses are not well understood, particularly in humans. HYPOTHESIS: We present a paradigm for estimating directional brain-heart interactions in response to taVNS. We propose that our approach is able to identify causal links between the activity of brainstem nuclei involved in autonomic control and cardiovagal outflow.
methodsWe adopt an approach based on a recent reformulation of Granger causality that includes permutation-based, nonparametric statistics. The method is applied to ultrahigh field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected on healthy subjects during taVNS.
resultsOur framework identified taVNS-evoked functional brainstem responses with superior sensitivity compared to prior conventional approaches, confirming causal links between taVNS stimulation and fMRI response in the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS). Furthermore, our causal approach elucidated potential mechanisms by which information is relayed between brainstem nuclei and cardiovagal, i.e., high-frequency heart rate variability, in response to taVNS. Our findings revealed that key brainstem nuclei, known from animal models to be involved in cardiovascular control, exert a causal influence on taVNS-induced cardiovagal outflow in humans.
conclusionOur causal approach allowed us to noninvasively evaluate directional interactions between fMRI BOLD signals from brainstem nuclei and cardiovagal outflow.
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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.