Authors:
Surej Mouli
1
;
Ramaswamy Palaniappan
1
;
Jane Ollis
2
;
Ian McLoughlin
3
;
Rahul Kanegaonkar
4
;
5
and
Sunil Arora
6
Affiliations:
1
Data Science Research Group, School of Computing, University of Kent, U.K.
;
2
MindSpire Ltd., U.K.
;
3
ICT Cluster, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore
;
4
Canterbury Christ Church University, U.K.
;
5
Kent Surrey Clinical Research Network, U.K.
;
6
Frimley Park Hospital, Camberley, U.K.
Keyword(s):
Electrocardiogram, Stress Reduction, Tragus, Vagus Nerve Stimulation.
Abstract:
Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation is fast becoming a popular alternative treatment method for various health disorders. The authors investigated the effects of auricular vagus nerve stimulation at tragus for activating the parasympathetic nervous system to reduce stress, in light of mixed results from other studies. Stimulation frequency of 25 Hz with a pulse-width of 200 µs was administered at tragus with ECG data recorded during pre- and post-stimulation trials to investigate changes in the low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) parameters of heart rate variability (HRV). The results from five subjects demonstrate an increase in the HF component and a decrease in LF when comparing pre- and post-stimulation values, denoting that VNS stimulated more of the parasympathetic activity. The LF/HF ratio was reduced for all participants after stimulation, with an average reduction of 64.5% observed. Overall, this study has indicated the feasibility of using tragus as a stimulation si
te to stimulate the vagus nerve; tragus being easier to administrate than many alternative sites while still being effective for stress reduction.
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