Body of Research

Is transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) supportive in cases of  inflammatory bowel disease? This proof of concept study suggests it can —attenuating signs and symptoms with mild to moderate inflammatory bowel disease. Read more at NIH PubMed.

Read more about a successful study to determine the effective anti-inflammation capacity of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) through development of a stimulating electrode system of transcutaneous auricular VN. Citation: Go YY, Ju WM, Lee CM, Chae SW, Song JJ. Different Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Parameters Modulate the Anti-Inflammatory Effects on Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Inflammation in Mice. Biomedicines. 2022;10(2):247. Published 2022...

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has shown positive effects on a variety of diseases. Considering that decreased heart rate variability (HRV) is closely associated with morbidity and mortality for a variety of diseases, it is important to investigate the effect of taVNS on HRV. The studies suggest that taVNS could increase HRV, it may help taVNS in the treatment of low HRV related diseases. However, taVNS may not have parameter-specific effects on HRV. This study show...

Acute inflammation can turn chronic, as shown in studies such as reported by Harvard Medical School in a special report on Fighting Inflammation: How to stop the damage before it compromises your health. In fact, an exacerbated inflammatory response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is believed to be one of the major causes of the morbidity and mortality of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, inflammation that turns chronic can become a re...

Dr. Jihong Liu, MD, at the Preventative Treatment Center of the Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Foshan, China, et al. have studied the auricular stomach point of rabbits with acute and chronic gastritis to observe the changes in histological and ultrastructure of the auricular point against those in control groups. Results showed histological changes, including mast cells infiltration, hyperplasia of epidermis and dermis and loosed dense connective tissue, were observed in ...

The Psychological Health Center of Excellence of the Defense Health Agency in the Department of Defense has released a Psych Health Evidence Brief on the use of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although the 2021 brief falls short of recommending VNS for treatment of PTSD, it shows recognition of a treatment approach that is gaining rapid momentum even just since 2020.[1] In fact, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is treatment ap...

A review of the potential of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), concludes that targeting the anti-inflammatory properties of the vagus nerve with VNS could be of interest in the management of patients with IBD involving the digestive tract through a non-drug therapy. About 1.5 million Americans and 2.2 million people in Europe are affected by IBD. There is a rising incidence of IBD in Western countries, supporting the hypothesis that “Westernization” of our li...

The American Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched a national initiative to train providers in Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA) treatment as a non-pharmacological approach to pain management, and performed a research project over a 2 year period (2016-2018) to evaluate its effectiveness on immediate pain relief. This project took place at 57 VHA medical centers in the United States. A total of 11,406 veterans were treated with BFA at least once, in some cases 3 times.  More than 75% expe...

Several studies investigating the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) for disorders tinnitus, migraine and pain show therapeutic effects similar to those produced by the more invasive direct vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). Although VNS is an FDA-approved therapy for the treatment of both depression and epilepsy, it is limited to being a second or third-line treatment option for severe, intervention-resistant cases, due to risks involved with device implantation. In contrast, t...

Review article on the potential of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) in managing depression — and as it possibly relates to pain and other chronic conditions affected by negative emotional affect and psychological conditions such as depression.   Reference: Liu, CH., Yang, MH., Zhang, GZ. et al. Neural networks and the anti-inflammatory effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in depression. J Neuroinflammation 17, 54 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s1...

Our metabolic functions (e.g. organs, glands, involuntary muscles) are influenced by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) via sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions. The vagus nerve, the 10th longest of the cranial nerves, is a major component of the parasympathetic nervous system and serves to maintain homeostasis providing bidirectional communication between the body and brain.  The neuroatanomy of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (ABVN) offers insight for an understanding of the ef...

The only place on the body where the vagus nerve (VN) sends its only peripheral branch is on the outer ear. The auricle is where this VN branch surfaces to form a cutaneous receptive field in the pinna of the ear — an area responsive to peripheral nerve stimulation. Thus, the auricle allows for easy access for auricular (and transcutaneous auricular) vagus nerve stimulation (aVNS/taVNS), that relays the stimuli to the brainstem and higher brain regions via extensive projections to second and...