‘vagal tone’ – the activity in the vagus nerve, which controls many of our body’s functions in ways that we scarcely understand. It is a long nerve, which bypasses the spinal cord and reaches from the brain to the heart and many other organs, carrying information and instructions in both directions. It is an extraordinary nerve. Stimulation of the nerve with an electric current can help epilepsy, though nobody knows why. It can allow the generation of orgasms in women who are paralysed and have suffered complete destruction of the spinal cord. Apparently, people who have had it divided (an
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