Effects of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation on pupil dilation are dependent on sensory matching Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a promising tool to modulate motivation and affect, with prior studies showing greater pupil dilation compared to sham. However, sensory dif...

Pupil dilation is an established biomarker of arousal, and studies have shown that non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) elicits pupil dilation. Here, we find that it depends on sensory matching.
#neuroskyence 🩺

Now published in @cp-iscience.bsky.social

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (286516) | University of Oslo Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (286516), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Please RT
2 new positions in the lab as postdoc & PhD!

Interested in stress, pain, or reward? This project has it all!

We are a friendly but ambitious group. Oslo is a capital city on the fjord & bordered by forest, great urban & outdoors opportunities: 💃 ⛷️ 🚣 🎭 🎶

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Effects of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation on pupil dilation are dependent on sensory matching www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06....

Our meta-analysis showed tVNS-induced pupil dilation (neuromadlab.shinyapps.io/tVNSPupilmeta/). We wanted to replicate with right-sided tVNS, but when accounting for sensation (even with initial matching) there was no effect compared to sham in our sample (N=94).
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This is the first paper of my first grant 🎉. Work led by our PhD-student @cecivez.bsky.social together with @ulrichettinger.bsky.social & @nbkroemer.bsky.social

There is also good news embedded in the report. We find that taVNS briefly purturbs the correlation of the pupil dilation trace of the left and the right eye. This novel marker is not as strongly associated with sensory ratings. But it makes sense since we stimulate one side of the vagus.

A plot showing that taVNS does not induce larger pupil dilation compared to sham.

A plot showing that sham-induced pupil dilation is much more variable

Pulsed taVNS elicits pupil dilation. However, if sham feels as intense, there is not much left. Based on our comparatively large sample (94 participants, single-blind crossover), we show that a highly variable sham response explains this.
#neuroskyence 🩺
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨 Applications for jSchool 2025 are NOW OPEN!
Are you a psychology or behavioural science student interested in research? Join jSchool 2025 to gain hands-on research experience, guided by early-career researchers.

👉 Apply now: jrp.pscholars.org/jschool2025
#jschool2025

📢 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗝𝗥𝗣 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀!
Our former JRP Supervisor, Dr. @gabrielapavarini.bsky.social, shares what made her experience so rewarding.

This year, we’re looking for PhD students or postdoctoral researchers to join us in exploring the 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 at 𝗷𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱.

Want to learn more about these truly eye-opening findings? You can run your adjusted meta-analysis using our living Bayesian meta-analysis, which is provided as a ShinyApp. Check it out here:
neuromadlab.shinyapps.io/tVNSPupilmeta/

Across 18 studies, the meta-analysis shows moderate evidence against an effect of taVNS on pupil dilation

Stimulation effects of taVNS on pupil dilation depend on the use of a phasic vs. conventional protocol.

Does tVNS elicit replicable effects beyond BOLD responses in the brainstem? Yes, pulsed, but not conventional tVNS leads to robust pupil dilation in our new meta-analysis.

Published in Brain Stim w/ @cecivez.bsky.social @akuehnel.bsky.social #neuroskyence 🩺
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congrats Siri!! 🎉

I thought it could be nice to connect the community of researchers exploring body-brain interactions on bsky, so here is the Body-Brain Interactions Starter Pack! 🫀🫁👀🧠 #neuroskyence #academicsky

Let me know if you would like to be added or know someone to add. Enjoy and share!

go.bsky.app/Fwqeu32

In search of markers of tVNS, we looked at pupil dilation 👁️ doi.org/10.1101/2024... . Short pulsed but not continuous stimulation seems to work! You can also look at the data yourself neuromadlab.shinyapps.io/tVNSPupilmeta/. work w/@nbkroemer.bsky.social & @cecivez.bsky.social 🧠

After months of piloting and optimization, we are finally seeing high-quality recordings of tVNS-induced pupil dilation. @akuehnel.bsky.social also set up an automated QC report with several plots and is too humble to brag about it.

Work w/ @cecivez.bsky.social #neuroscience

Such an inspiring WISE luncheon hosted by @therealspr.bsky.social today. Thanks to the speakers for sharing their experiences on how to build a more inclusive and diverse environment in academia. Great food for thoughts on how we as students and ECRs can also contribute! #2023SPR

Finally arrived in New Orleans right on time for #2023SPR (plus some city sightseeing)🤩

Looking forward to the next few days of talks, posters and social events, and to presenting some of our recent work on taVNS and decision-making on Friday!
@therealspr.bsky.social

Out now in Nature Metabolism: metabolic tuning during the menstrual cycle.

I wrote an N&V feature about a new study by Hummel & Benkendorff et al. showing changes in insulin sensitivity during the menstrual cycle. #neuroscience
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Reliability of gamified reinforcement learning in densely sampled longitudinal assessments Author summary Learning from rewards is a fundamental aspect of motivation and alterations in learning and value-based choices are evident across different mental disorders. However, the traditional l...

Out now in PLoS Digital Health:

Reward learning parameters are often seen as trait-like characteristics. We collected >9.7k runs of a gamified task to estimate reliability and find considerable fluctuations. Work w/ @akuehnel.bsky.social #neuroskyence #MedSky

journals.plos.org/digitalhealt...