Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Improve Emotional State.

Emotional experiences are a part of our lives. The maladaptive functioning of an individual's emotional field can lead to emotional disturbances of various kinds, such as anxiety and depression. Currently, there is an increasing prevalence of emotional disorders that cause great human suffering and high socioeconomic costs. Emotional processing has a biological basis. The major neuroscientific theories of emotion are based on biological functioning, and all of them take into account the anatomy and function of the tenth cranial nerve: the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve connects the subdiaphragmatic and supradiaphragmatic areas and modulates emotional processing as the basis of interoceptive functioning. Auricular vagus nerve stimulation is a new and innovative neuromodulation technique based on the function of the vagus nerve. Several interventions have shown that this new neurostimulation technique is a very promising resource for treating emotional disorders. In this paper, we summarise three neuroscientific theories of emotion, explain what transcutaneous auricular nerve stimulation is, and present arguments for its use and continued research.

Experiencia Emocional y sus Fundamentos Biológicos: Mejorando el Estado Emocional a Través del Tono Vagal / Emotional Experience and its Biological Underpinnings: Improving Emotional Well-Being Through Vagal Tone

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es el de recopilar conocimiento sobre la base de los fundamentos biológicosde la experiencia emocional y sobre la posibilidad de mejora del bienestar emocional a través del aumento deltono vagal. El tono vagal es considerado un indicador de la experiencia emocional. Y la experiencia emocional esconcebida como un proceso dinámico donde interaccionan la propia reacción emocional y la capacidad de regularla reacción emocional. Mediante las intervenciones en biorretroalimentación de la variabilidad de la frecuenciacardíaca centradas en la respiración y mediante la neuroestimulación transauricular del nervio vago es posibleaumentar el tono vagal de forma que se mejora el estado emocional.(AU)

The main objective of this study is to present knowledge on the biological underpinnings of emotional experience andon the possibility of improving emotional well-being by increasing vagal tone. Vagal tone is considered an indicatorof emotional experience. An emotional experience is conceived as a dynamic process in which an emotional reactionand the ability to regulate the emotional reaction interact. Through heart rate variability biofeedback interventionsfocusing on breathing and through transauricular vagus nerve stimulation, it is possible to increase the vagal tone ina way that improves the emotional state.(AU)

Reducing Anxiety and Social Stress in Primary Education: A Breath-Focused Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Intervention.

Primary school students suffer from high levels of anxiety and stress. Having emotional regulation abilities can help them to manage challenging emotional situations. Conscious and slow breathing is a physiological, emotional regulation strategy that is feasible for primary school students to learn. Following Polyvagal Theory and PMER Theory, this research presents the results of a breath-focused heart rate variability biofeedback intervention. The intervention aimed to reduce anxiety and physiological and social stress in primary school children. A total of 585 students (46.4% girls and 53.6% boys) from the same public school, aged between 7 and 12 years (M = 8.51; SD = 1.26), participated in this study. To assess the impact of training, a mixed design was used with two groups (Treatment and Control groups), two evaluation phases (Pretest and Post-test), and three educational cycles (first, second and third cycles). To examine heart rate variability, emWave software was used and anxiety and social stress were measured by the BASC II test. The results showed that after the intervention, the students learned to breathe consciously. Moreover, they reduced their levels of anxiety (M(SD)pretest = 12.81(2.22) vs. M(SD)posttest = 13.70(1.98)) and stress (M(SD)pretest = 12.20(1.68) vs. M(SD)posttest = 12.90(1.44)). The work also discusses the limitations and benefits of this type of intervention in primary schools.

Emotional Self-Regulation in Primary Education: A Heart Rate-Variability Biofeedback Intervention Programme.

This study investigated the benefits of using a biofeedback intervention programme to train children in controlling their heart rate variability (HRV) through slow-paced breathing in real time. HRV biofeedback interventions focused on showing subjects to breathe such that their HRV numbers rise, improving their self-regulation. The HRV biofeedback intervention, focused on breathing, was conducted with primary education students aged between 7 and 11 years. The programme consisted of five biofeedback sessions, where students were taught to breathe six long and slow pairs of breaths per minute, to increase their HRV. After participation in the programme, students, regardless of gender, increased their HRV in a statistically significant fashion with a large effect, but this effect was not the same for all ages. HRV biofeedback interventions are rarely applied in schools and given the effectiveness of the intervention to improve HRV in children, the applied implications of our results in educational settings are discussed, especially taking into account the children's ages.