A study published in Cell Stem Cell on February 5, 2026, traces a direct signaling chain from sleep-deprived brains to ...

Dopamine is usually the first point of call to explain why food and drugs feel rewarding. However, a new study has found that signals from the gut, carried by the vagus nerve, are required for normal ...

Dopamine—a neurotransmitter responsible for influencing motivation, pleasure, mood and learning in the brain—has experienced a bit of fame in recent years, acting as a sort of buzzword to describe a ...

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

A study in Nature reveals that our understanding of the balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory forces extends beyond immune cells to a surprising player: the vagus nerve. This wandering nerve, ...

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

Social situations can be very stressful, and we all vary in our “social sensitivity” or our ability to understand the feelings of other people and how they may come to interact with us. Someone with ...

We all have two vagus nerves—one on the left side of the body and one on the right—both of which connect the brain to the intestines. On TikTok, vagus nerve stimulation sounds like a miracle cure.