The effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on romantic couples' physiology and behavior during conflict.

IF 2.6 3区心理学 Q2 PSYCHIATRY Anxiety Stress and Coping Pub Date : 2026-07-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-04 DOI:10.1080/10615806.2025.2609987

Yoobin Park, Darwin A Guevarra, Julia O'Bryan, Wendy Berry Mendes

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Abstract

Background: Conflicts with close others and subsequent affective reactions can have long-term consequences for mental and physical health. Building on recent studies using transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) highlighting the role of the vagus nerve in social functioning, we examined if tVNS can modulate the emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to a romantic conflict.

Methods: Romantic couples (N_couples= 67; N_individuals= 134) were randomly assigned to tVNS or sham stimulation. Both partners received continuous tVNS or sham stimulation for 15 min before and during a six-minute discussion about a recurring conflict topic. We examined each partner's emotional and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity to conflict and the partners' physiological and behavioral attunement to each other.

Results: Our results revealed no condition differences in emotional experiences, but individuals receiving tVNS (vs. sham stimulation) experienced greater decreases in RSA during conflict. Further, while RSA reactivity synchrony did not differ between conditions, couples in the tVNS (vs. sham stimulation) condition showed greater behavioral synchrony.

Conclusions: This work provides experimental evidence supporting the role of the vagus nerve in modulating reactions to stressful social interactions, highlighting the potential of tVNS to subtly influence couple dynamics at physiological and behavioral levels.

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经皮迷走神经刺激对情侣冲突时生理和行为的影响。

背景：与亲密的人发生冲突以及随后的情感反应会对心理和身体健康产生长期影响。基于最近使用经皮迷走神经刺激（tVNS）的研究，强调了迷走神经在社会功能中的作用，我们研究了tVNS是否可以调节情感、生理和行为对恋爱冲突的反应。方法：情侣67对，个体134对，随机分为tVNS组和假刺激组。双方在讨论一个反复出现的冲突话题前和讨论过程中分别接受15分钟的连续电视刺激或假刺激。我们检查了每个伴侣的情绪和呼吸性窦性心律失常（RSA）对冲突的反应，以及伴侣对彼此的生理和行为调节。结果：我们的研究结果显示，在情绪体验方面没有条件差异，但接受tVNS刺激的个体（与假刺激相比）在冲突期间的RSA下降更大。此外，虽然RSA反应性同步性在不同条件下没有差异，但tVNS（与假刺激相比）条件下的夫妇表现出更大的行为同步性。结论：本研究提供了实验证据，支持迷走神经在调节应激性社会互动反应中的作用，强调了tVNS在生理和行为水平上微妙影响夫妻动态的潜力。

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来源期刊

Anxiety Stress and Coping Multiple-

CiteScore

7.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal provides a forum for scientific, theoretically important, and clinically significant research reports and conceptual contributions. It deals with experimental and field studies on anxiety dimensions and stress and coping processes, but also with related topics such as the antecedents and consequences of stress and emotion. We also encourage submissions contributing to the understanding of the relationship between psychological and physiological processes, specific for stress and anxiety. Manuscripts should report novel findings that are of interest to an international readership. While the journal is open to a diversity of articles.