📚 New preprint on modification of heart-brain coupling via TMS over DLPFC

In this study, we systematically tested the potential of rTMS to modulate heart-brain coupling via the vagus nerve. To this end, we assessed the protocol of neurocardiac-guided (NCG) TMS 2.0 over seven different stimulation targets in the prefrontal cortex and repeated each session three times in each participant to explore reliability and repeatability.

This is a pretty cool project and I am shared first with my main responsibiliy in data analysis. Specifically, I used non-linear mixed-effects regression models to explore the relationship between our different predictors such as stimulation intensity, measured pain, measured side effects, and number of session and our outcome variable of heart-brain coupling. Even after the substantial amount of variance explained by pain and other side effects we find quite a stable, target-specific effect of TMS on heart-brain coupling at higher stimulation intensities. If you want to know more, check out the preprint!