The Compassionate Vagus: effects of transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation on cognition, emotion and heart rate variability during compassionate mind training
This clinical psychology doctoral thesis is structured into three chapters. The first chapter presents a systematic review of the cognitive and emotional domains affected by transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS). It also aims to present an overview of the experimental designs, psychological tasks, outcome measures, participant groups and stimulation parameters used in the field of tVNS. The second chapter is an empirical paper investigating the potential facilitatory effects of tVNS as an adjunct to compassionate mind training (CMT). The study investigates the effect of tVNS and CMT on state affect, self-compassion/criticism, vagally mediated heart rate variability and emotional face processing in healthy participants. The third chapter is a critical appraisal of the research process of chapter 1 and 2
