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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Imaging and Stimulation
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1539416
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Brain Imaging and Stimulation Methods for Cognitive Function Investigation Volume II View all 4 articles

A pooled analysis of the side effects of non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS)

Provisionally accepted
Manon Giraudier Manon Giraudier 1*Carlos Ventura-Bort Carlos Ventura-Bort 1Christoph Szeska Christoph Szeska 1Mathias Weymar Mathias Weymar 1,2
  • 1 Department of Biological Psychology and Affective Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
  • 2 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a promising technique for modulating vagal afferent fibers non-invasively and has shown therapeutic potential in neurological, cognitive, and affective disorders. While previous research highlights its efficacy, the safety profile of taVNS has been less extensively examined. This study therefore aimed to systematically investigate side effects of taVNS in a large pooled dataset consisting of 488 participants, utilizing a standardized questionnaire to assess ten reported side effects. Analyses included effects of stimulation type (interval vs. continuous), stimulation duration, stimulation intensity and participant characteristics (age and gender) as potential modulators. The findings support the safety of taVNS, with minimal and mild side effects reported across participants (M = 1.86, SD = 1.36). Although participants receiving sham stimulation were 32.4% less likely to report unpleasant feelings compared to participants receiving taVNS, this effect was driven primarily by low-end ratings (specifically, a rating of 1, indicating not at all when experiencing the corresponding side effect), thus suggesting limited clinical relevance. Interval stimulation notably reduced the likelihood of some side effects, particularly for neck pain, dizziness and unpleasant feelings, suggesting potential for optimizing taVNS protocols. Stimulation intensity and duration showed few statistically significant, but clinically minimal (i.e., very small) effects. Overall, these findings demonstrate a favorable safety profile of taVNS, with mostly mild and transient effects, supporting its use as a suitable non-invasive tool in both research and clinical applications.

    Keywords: side effects, tVNS, taVNS, Safety profile, Pooled data

    Received: 04 Dec 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Giraudier, Ventura-Bort, Szeska and Weymar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Manon Giraudier, Department of Biological Psychology and Affective Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.