Slow breathing and cold plunges promise calm. But real vagus nerve treatments are more complex and still under study.

From humming and ice baths to medical implants, the vagus nerve is everywhere. But what does it actually do and can you ...

An implantable vagus nerve stimulation device yielded an ACR20 response rate of more than 52% at 12 months in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to findings published in Nature ...

Breathwork is one of the most direct ways to influence the vagus nerve. “When we slow and lengthen the breath—particularly the exhale—we stimulate vagal tone, shifting the body out of ‘fight-or-flight ...

Researchers found that cutting the vagus nerve in mice reduced dopamine activity and lessened the frequency of reward ...

For patients with dementia, postoperative delirium can accelerate long-term cognitive decline. Vagus nerve stimulation could ...

Just as a musician can train to more sharply distinguish subtle differences in pitch, mammals can improve their ability to interpret hearing, vision, and other senses with practice. This process, ...

Debora Calderon, research assistant and fourth-year doctoral student at the University of Texas at Dallas, looks for the presence of a virus after infecting thin slices of rat brain at a lab on campus ...

Two years ago, I published a nine-part series, "The Vagus Nerve Survival Guide to Combat Fight-or-Flight Urges." The genesis came from an "Aha!" moment when I noticed a pattern of diverse scientific ...

After surgery, some older adults don't simply recover—they unravel. Confusion, inattention, and agitation can set in, a condition known as postoperative delirium. For patients already living with ...

Just as a musician can train to more sharply distinguish subtle differences in pitch, mammals can improve their ability to interpret hearing, vision, and other senses with practice. This process, ...