View clinical trials related to Vagus Nerve Stimulation.
Filter by:This between-subject, longitudinal pilot study in healthy college students aims to explore the acceptability and preliminary outcomes of two novel and complementary interventions that may improve stress and sleep: transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) and a mobile mindfulness intervention.
We aimed to divide the healthy individuals aged between 18-45 years, included in our study, into three groups as bilateral, unilateral-right and unilateral-left Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VSS). We planned to examine the effects of vagal nerve stimulation applied to each group with superficial EMG and EEG measurements before and after. Auricular vagus nerve stimulation has effects on cerebral activity. Therefore, this effect will be evaluated with EEG. In addition, whether there is a secondary peripheral effect will be examined by EMG method. Changes to be detected in EEG and EMG in healthy individuals may give an idea about the use of auricular vagus nerve stimulation in patients. In our study, healthy individuals between the ages of 18-45, who do not have any chronic diseases and who do not have to use any medication regularly will be included in all three groups. Due to the superficial EMG measurement method we used, those who have orthopedic problems in the upper extremity (shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers) or have a history of surgical operation in the upper extremity, however, any systemic disease such as diabetes, gout, chronic kidney failure, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid diseases individuals will be excluded from the study in all three groups.
Oromotor dysfunction and poor feeding is common after premature birth and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with motor activity accelerates functional improvements after stroke. This study is designed to investigate whether transcutaneous auricular VNS (taVNS) paired with oromotor rehabilitation is tolerable, safe, and facilitates motor learning in infants who have failed oral feeding.
Infants of diabetic mothers who are failing to learn oral feeding by term age equivalence have greater CNS oxidative stress, which interact to predict poor neuroplasticity response to transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation paired with oral feeding. We propose treating the oxidative stress in IDM infants prior to initiating taVNS, with an FDA-approved antioxidant (N-acetylcysteine, NAC) to improve CNS oxidative stress, which in turn regulates expression of many genes including BDNF, that may enhance motor learning.
The Vagus nerve (VN) serve as an "unconscious inner brain" that integrates messages from the body and provides metabolic homeostatic regulation to various organs.In this study the investigators want to compare different ways to stimulate the vagus nerve to assess their respective effects compared to a sham stimulation. Each participant will be exposed in a random way to 7 different ways to stimulate the VN: - Manual Head Massage - Mechanical Head Massager (BREO Inc. Helmet) - Low laser Therapy (LLT) - Sham LLT - Transcutaneous Electrical Nervous Stimulation (TENS) ear stimulation (as testing phase prototype device) - Deep and slow breathing (as testing intervention based on video app) - Relaxed reading time (as control situation) Therefore, within the same design the investigators want to conduct two separate studies that should lead to two separate publications: - Study 1: comparison of manual head massage to mechanical Helmet massager and relaxed reading - Study 2: comparison of LLT with sham LLT and relaxed reading The two other interventions: TENS ear stimulation and Deep and Slow breathing are purely observational to gain knowledge in context of a convenient design.
Kidney transplantation entails the implantation of a live or deceased organ into a recipient. As a result of this event, there is an inflammatory response in the recipient elicited by the transplanted organ. At the present time, immunosuppressive treatments are routinely used to avoid rejection of the transplanted organ. Although effective in this goal, there is currently an unmet need to develop new strategies to control the innate inflammatory responses and to reduce the injury caused to the organs being transplanted. The investigators propose a novel approach to the management of this inflammatory response. The investigators will explore the "cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway" as a potential target, a pathway first characterized in the basic science laboratories of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In short, the vagus nerve activates the splenic nerve which activates choline acetyltransferase expressing T cells in the spleen. Stimulation of the alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha7nAChR) on macrophages by acetylcholine reduces production of multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines. Currently, vagus nerve stimulation is used to treat a number of human diseases, including epilepsy, depression and migraine headaches. Many of these treatments activate the vagus nerve non-invasively by stimulating a branch of the vagus that innervates the ear. In this study, the investigators will stimulate this branch of the vagus nerve, and look for changes in inflammatory markers in the blood of kidney transplant recipients of both live and deceased donors. Successful completion of this study will allow for future studies in organ transplant recipients.
Two important mechanisms play a major role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes: insulin resistance of the target tissues and the impaired insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells. Postprandial factors (such as insulin) are perceived by the human brain and induce signals that regulate glucose metabolism via the parasympathetic nervous system. Deep breathing exercise can increase parasympathetic nerve activity. Heart rate variability (HRV) in healthy people can be significantly increased by deep breathing maneuvers, indicating a shift from sympathetic activity to parasympathetic activity. The hypothesis is that this postprandial shift results in a change in peripheral glucose metabolism. In turn, the increased parasympathetic activity could potentially result in a change in postprandial insulin sensitivity or secretion. To test this hypothesis, this study investigates the effect of deep breathing exercise versus normal breathing on insulin sensitivity, on insulin secretion, glucose tolerance, resting energy expenditure, and on parasympathetic tone (analysis of heart rate variability).