ArticlePain reports2026
No significant modulation of pressure pain sensitivity and cardioception after transauricular vagal nerve stimulation.
Article in Pain reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Transauricular vagal nerve stimulation (taVNS) is gaining interest as a chronic pain treatment due to its convergence with nociceptive pathways. Although pain-modulation by taVNS has been demonstrated, this research often lacks the use of active control or does not simultaneously explore effects on associated interoceptive pathways or vagal activation. Objectives: This double-blind, active-controlled, cross-over study aimed to corroborate the pain-modulating effect of taVNS whilst further investigating cardioception and vagal-activation markers. Methods: Thirty healthy individuals underwent 20 minutes of continuous 25-Hz electrical stimulation of the left concha cymba (taVNS) or earlobe (active control). Stimulation intensity was individually adjusted at two-thirds between perception and suprapain thresholds. Assessments were obtained before, immediately after, and 30 minutes after stimulation. These included pressure pain sensitivity measures including, pressure pain perception, detection, tolerance thresholds and conditioned pain modulation (CPM) as well as heart rate variability (HRV), pupillometry and cardioception measures. Results: Although stimulation intensities were higher for control stimulation than taVNS ( Conclusion: Although the findings offer partial support for the proposed vagal mechanism of taVNS, they highlight the limited understanding of which parameters and when stimulation exerts effects.
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.