ArticleScientific reports2024
Evaluating phasic transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) with pupil dilation: the importance of stimulation intensity and sensory perception.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effectiveness of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in stroke rehabilitation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Effects of taVNS on physiological responses and cognitive performance during a mental stressor.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Trial
- Non-Invasive Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Decreases Heart Rate Variability Independent of Caloric Load.Psychophysiology · 2025Trial
- A new hope: locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system at the nexus of neuropsychiatric symptoms.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- A Multiscale Spatiotemporal Causal Mapping Algorithm for Revealing Neural Network Mechanisms of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- NTS Neural Subtypes and Satiety Pathways: taVNS as a Novel Neuromodulatory Intervention.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Frequency-Dependent Effects of Transauricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Alleviating Visceral Hypersensitivity: Involvement of the Nesfatin-1/CRF/CRF1R Pathway.Neurogastroenterology and motility · 2026Article
- Pulsed taVNS-Elicited Pupil Dilation: Effects of Intermixed Stimulation, Sham Location, and Respiratory Phase.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Effects of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation on pupil dilation are dependent on sensory matching.iScience · 2026Article
- No significant modulation of pressure pain sensitivity and cardioception after transauricular vagal nerve stimulation.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Balancing the autonomic scale: the promise of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in combating cardiovascular diseases.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Review
- Modulation of response inhibition with event-related atVNS showed EEG but no behavioral effects.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Efficacy of auricular point-vagus nerve stimulation in adolescent insomnia patients and the brain function regulation mechanisms: a study protocol for an experimental, randomized, controlled clinical trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Stimulate to Remember? The Effects of Short Burst of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) on Memory Performance and Pupil Dilation.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Assessing a Stimulator Modification for Simultaneous Noninvasive Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation and MRI.Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of NeuroimagingReview
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The efficacy of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) as a non-invasive method to modulate physiological markers of noradrenergic activity of the Locus Coeruleus (LC), such as pupil dilation, is increasingly more discussed. However, taVNS studies show high heterogeneity of stimulation effects. Therefore, a taVNS setup was established here to test different frequencies (10 Hz and 25 Hz) and intensities (3 mA and 5 mA) during phasic stimulation (3 s) with time-synchronous recording of pupil dilation in younger adults. Specifically, phasic real taVNS and higher intensity led to increased pupil dilation, which is consistent with phasic invasive VNS studies in animals. The results also suggest that the influence of intensity on pupil dilation may be stronger than that of frequency. However, there was an attenuation of taVNS-induced pupil dilation when differences in perception of sensations were considered. Specifically, pupil dilation during phasic stimulation increased with perceived stimulation intensity. The extent to which the effect of taVNS induces pupil dilation and the involvement of sensory perception in the stimulation process are discussed here and require more extensive research. Additionally, it is crucial to strive for comparable stimulation sensations during systematic parameter testing in order to investigate possible effects of phasic taVNS on pupil dilation in more detail.
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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.