Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China.
College of Acupuncture and Orthopedics, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China.
Neurosci Bull. 2021 Jun;37(6):853-862. doi: 10.1007/s12264-020-00619-y. Epub 2020 Dec 23.
Whether in the West or the East, the connection between the ear and the rest of the body has been explored for a long time. Especially in the past century or more, the relevant theoretical and applied research on the ear has greatly promoted the development of ear therapy, and finally the concept of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been proposed. The purpose of taVNS is to treat a disease non-invasively by applying electrical current to the cutaneous receptive field formed by the auricular branch of the vagus nerve in the outer ear. In the past two decades, taVNS has been a topic of basic, clinical, and transformation research. It has been applied as an alternative to drug treatment for a variety of diseases. Based on the rapid understanding of the application of taVNS to human health and disease, some limitations in the development of this field have also been gradually exposed. Here, we comprehensively review the origin and research status of the field.
无论是在西方还是东方，耳朵与身体其他部位的联系都已经被探索了很长时间。特别是在过去的一个多世纪里，有关耳朵的相关理论和应用研究极大地促进了耳疗的发展，最终提出了经皮耳迷走神经刺激（taVNS）的概念。taVNS 的目的是通过将电流施加到外耳中迷走神经耳支形成的皮肤感受野，来非侵入性地治疗疾病。在过去的二十年中，taVNS 一直是基础、临床和转化研究的主题。它已被用作治疗各种疾病的药物治疗替代方法。基于对 taVNS 在人类健康和疾病中的应用的快速理解，该领域的一些发展局限性也逐渐暴露出来。在这里，我们全面回顾了该领域的起源和研究现状。
