The heart knows best: baseline heart rate variability as guide to transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in depression.

ABSTRACT: Major Depressive Disorder can be conceptualized as a chronic stress condition associated with autonomic dysregulation, including blunted heart rate reactivity, elevated basal cortisol levels and higher low-grade peripheral inflammation, pointing to an autonomic imbalance with relative sympathetic overactivation and parasympathetic attenuation. Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) offers a non-invasive method to stimulate the vagus nerve, as key component of the parasympathetic system, to restore autonomic balance. Here, we examined whether emotional (i.e., positive and negative emotions), cardiac (i.e., heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV)), and inflammatory (i.e., TNF- α, IL-6) reactivity to stress are differentially influenced by taVNS in participants with MDD and contro

SUBMITTER: Schiweck C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12689627 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature