ArticleJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2026
Closed-loop movement-paired transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for upper-limb rehabilitation: a feasibility study.
Article in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Profiled Wet Spinning of Polyurethane Composites for Soft Dry Electrodes in Transcutaneous Stimulation Applications.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with physical rehabilitation has shown promise for improving upper-limb function after neurological injury. In this study, we introduce SmartVNS, a wearable system that automatically delivers movement-paired transcutaneous auricular VNS using a wrist-worn intertial measurement unit (IMU) for accurate functional movement detection. We evaluated feasibility, usability and performance of the SmartVNS system in a four-week, 20-session clinical feasibility study involving nine individuals with stroke or spinal cord injury during conventional therapy. Despite a wide range of baseline upper-limb function in patients (ARAT scores 0-52), the system adapted to individual abilities and demonstrated a consistent stimulation rate between sessions and patients, averaging 14.7 stimulations/min with a low variability (SD = 3.4 stimulations/min; n = 9). The IMU-based movement detection algorithm achieved stimulation precision comparable to therapist manual triggering (precision as mean ± SEM: SmartVNS: 76.3 ± 3.1%, therapists: 82.4 ± 2.6%, video analysis used a ground truth), while delivering stimulation in double the number of movements (sensitivity as mean ± SEM: SmartVNS: 50.4 ± 5.0%, therapists: 23.4 ± 4.7%, video analysis used a ground truth). The system demonstrated high usability (patients and therapists rated UMUX: 85 ± 12%) and was well-tolerated by participants, with patients able to self-apply the device. Exploratory clinical outcomes showed consistent functional improvements across participants. These findings support the feasibility and usability of SmartVNS as a scalable neuromodulation platform to support neurorehabilitation.
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