Effects of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Pain and Brain Activity in Healthy Adults
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT07827690. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
The Effects of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) on Acute Pain Perception and Brain Activity in Healthy Adults
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether stimulating a nerve in the neck changes how much pain people feel. It also looks at whether this stimulation changes brain activity. The study is being done in healthy adults ages 18 to 70. The nerve being studied is called the vagus nerve. It runs through the neck and connects to parts of the brain that handle pain. In this study, the nerve is stimulated from outside the body using a small device placed on the skin. There is no surgery, and nothing is implanted. The main questions it aims to answer are: (1) Does stimulating the vagus nerve lower the pain people feel during a cold water test? (2) Does stimulating the vagus nerve change the electrical activity in the brain? Researchers will compare pain ratings and brain activity under three conditions in the same person: no stimulation, real stimulation over the vagus nerve, and sham stimulation placed nearby on the neck. Sham stimulation feels similar but is not aimed at the nerve. Participants will: (1) Come to one visit that lasts about 90 minutes, with no follow-up visits, (2) Wear a cap that records the brain's natural electrical signals for the whole visit, (3) Place both hands in cold water, about 39 degrees Fahrenheit, up to three times for up to 2 minutes each time, (4) Rate their pain after each cold water test, (5) Wear a stimulation device on the neck during two of the three cold water tests, (6) Not be told which of those two is the real stimulation until the visit is over.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT07827690
- Recruitment status
- Not yet recruiting
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 20 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
- Active transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation Device
- Sham transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation Device
- Cold pressor test Other
Device · Other
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 70 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Aug 31, 2026
- Primary completion
- Dec 31, 2027
- Completion
- Dec 31, 2027
- Last update posted
- Sep 17, 2026
2026 – 2028
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IU Health Neuroscience Center | Indianapolis | Indiana | 46202 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT07827690, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Sep 17, 2026 · Synced Sep 22, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT07827690 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.