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  1. vagus love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The vagus nerve.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The tenth cranial nerve, or wandering nerve, the longest and most widely distributed of the nerves of the brain, extending through the neck and thorax to the upper part of the abdomen. It supplies the organs of voice and respiration with motor and sensory fibers, and the pharynx, esophagus, stomach, and heart with motor influence. Its superficial origin is from the medulla, immediately in front of the restiform body and below that of the glossopharyngeal. It passes out of the cranial cavity through the jugular foramen, and accompanies the carotid artery in the neck to the thorax, where the nerves of the two sides differ in their course, that of the right side reaching the posterior surface of the esophagus and stomach, while that of the left goes to the anterior. It gives off very numerous branches, as the meningeal, auricular, pharyngeal, laryngeal, pulmonary, cardiac, gastric, etc., and forms intricate connections with other nerves of the cerebrospinal system, and with nerves of the sympathetic system. Also called pneumogastric, par vagum, and formerly second division of the eighth nerve of Willis.
  2. n. In insects, the principal visceral or stomatogastric nerve, which originates in two parts in the head, beneath the bases of the antennæ, uniting in a ganglion below the cerebrum, and passing backward along the upper surface of the intestinal canal. In the thorax it divides into two parts, which give off numerous smaller nerves to all the viscera.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The vagus nerve.
  2. n. Catholic A homeless person or vagrant.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. (Anat.) Wandering; -- applied especially to the pneumogastric nerve.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a mixed nerve that supplies the pharynx and larynx and lungs and heart and esophagus and stomach and most of the abdominal viscera

Etymologies

  1. From Latin vagus (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “We're trying to develop the technology to the point where we can do away with the electrodes that are used in vagus nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation," ASU professor William J. Tyler told IEEE Spectrum:”

    Mind control with sound and light - Boing Boing

  • “My sort they call vagus frivolous minds that must wander.”

    A Rare Benedictine

  • “The device, known as a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS), is implanted under the skin and sends electrical impulses to stimulate the vagus nerve in the neck.”

    The Washington Post: Is the FDA doing its job?

  • “They found that only fat appeared to turn on the endocannabinoid system by a signal that traveled to the brain and then to the intestines via a certain nerve bundle called the vagus, and that happened early in the process of digestion.”

    USA Today: Binge eating may be a high all its own

  • “TRUDEAU: Directly to a very important nerve bundle deep in the brain called the vagus nerve - sometimes called the wanderer, because the vagus has branches that wander throughout the body.”

    NPR: Human Connections Start With A Friendly Touch

  • “Loewi named the substance released by the relevant nerve, called the vagus nerve, Vagusstoff; today it is known as the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.”

    How the Mind Works: Revelations

  • “He has treated three other chronic hiccup patients with some success by implanting what's called a vagus nerve stimulator.”

    CNN Transcript Feb 8, 2006

  • “The tenth pair, the pneumogastric, also known as the vagus or wandering nerves, are the longest and most complex of all the cranial nerves.”

    A Practical Physiology

  • “Hiccups after surgery are thought to be due to a mild injury of this nerve called the vagus nerve caused by the tube that is used to help the patient breathe during surgery.”

    NYT > Home Page

  • “It wasn't until she watched a medical commercial on a late-night television program for an implantable device called a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) that she finally felt there could be a more effective therapy for her.”

    Berks county news

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘vagus’.

Comments

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  • chained_bear ... with her vagus. Apr 22, 2009

  • bilby Just a few short weeks after Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle takes neurosurgery by storm. Apr 22, 2009

  • chained_bear "But Doyle believes, and hopes, that the future of his field epilepsy research lies not in the relatively blunt procedure of ablation, or cutting tissue, but in augmenting brain function through electronic devices. The first of these, the vagal nerve stimulator, has been in use since 1997, and more than 50,000 have been implanted. Its purpose is to disrupt an incipient seizure by sending an electrical signal to the brain through the vagus nerve in the neck. Again, no one knows exactly why it works, but it often does."
    —Jerry Adler and Eliza Gray, with Sarah Kliff, "In the Grip of the Unknown," Newsweek, April 20, 2009 Apr 21, 2009

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‘vagus’ has been looked up 3248 times, added to 5 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.