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Influence of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on cognitive and affective processes

How to counter the memory impairing effects of stress: An interdisciplinary neuromodulatory approach (funded by the UFSKW)

Project coordinator: Dr. Manon Giraudier

 

Stress can severely disrupt our ability to recall information, affecting not only students in exams but also professionals in high-pressure situations. This project investigates transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation to protect memory retrieval under stress. Using behavioral, hormonal, and electrophysiological measures, we examine how these techniques influence attention, memory, and stress physiology. Our interdisciplinary approach combines psychology, neuroscience, and computational modeling to uncover for whom and why these interventions are most effective. Ultimately, this research aims to advance our understanding of stress-cognition interactions and provide practical strategies to preserve memory performance in everyday and clinical contexts.

Additional (collaborative) projects

Project coordinator: Prof. Dr. Mathias Weymar

 

  • Effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on cognitive emotion regulation (Keist, Weymar, & Jentsch); präregistriert über OSF (Feb 27, 2026), https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FETGA
  • Effects Of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation On Interoceptive Abilities (Schillings, Kipping, Ventura-Bort, Gjini, Pollatos, & Weymar); präregistriert über OSF (June 13, 2025), https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/REKV6
  • Effects Of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Mind Wandering Thought Probes On Reinforcement Learning Model Parameters (Sadedin, Ventura-Bort, Wirth, Rapp, Weymar, & Schad); präregistriert über OSF (May 21, 2024), https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/SQVC7
  • The Effect Of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TaVNS) And Mindful Acceptance On Pain Perception (van Ijzeren, van Dongen, Weymar, Szeska, & Wieser); präregistriert über OSF (Nov 6, 2023), https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/C96FN
  • Effects Of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TaVNS) On The P300: Do Stimulation Duration And Stimulation Type Matter? (Giraudier, Ventura-Bort, Weymar); präregistriert über OSF (May 23, 2023), https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/VQDR4
  • Influence Of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TaVNS) On The P600 And P3 (Contier, Rabovsky, Weymar, Wartenburger); präregistriert über OSF (May 25, 2022), https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FGBXS
  • Effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on visual processing using ssVEPs" (Ventura-Bort, Keil, Weymar)