How to Use vagal in a Sentence

vagal

adjective
Definition of vagalnext
  • The team tested their subjects’ vagal tone, or strength, before and after the study.
    — Jeffrey Rediger, Discover Magazine, 17 Apr. 2020
  • And as the number of social interactions went up, so did vagal tone.
    — Jeffrey Rediger, Discover Magazine, 17 Apr. 2020
  • Other studies have found that laughter helps restore a healthy vagal tone by contracting the diaphragm and pushing air out of the lungs.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2023
  • This leads to an increase in vagal activity, which relates to a decrease in heart rate, blood pressure, and the stress hormone cortisol, per Field.
    — Jessica Migala, Women's Health, 14 Aug. 2023
  • The vagal response is an automatic response that occurs when the vagus nerve is stimulated by triggers like stress, fear and pain.
    — Camille Caldera, USA TODAY, 21 Dec. 2020
  • Except the dorsal vagal complex hasn’t actually been proved to exist in humans.
    — Kristen Martin, Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Most recently, Liberles’s team discovered cells in the brainstem, connected to vagal neurons, that trigger nausea.
    — Emily Underwood, Science | AAAS, 10 June 2021
  • The researchers are also using their approach to examine metabolic changes, injecting mice with insulin or glucose and looking for vagal responses.
    — Tim Hornyak, Scientific American, 10 May 2018
  • Most vagal nerve stimulators, including SetPoint’s devices and those already in use for treating epilepsy and depression, are implants.
    — Scientific American, 14 Sep. 2018
  • Based on human experiments, Holst hypothesized that GLP-1 caused slower emptying of the stomach, which sent a signal through the vagal nerve signifying fullness.
    — Megan Molteni and Elaine Chen, STAT, 30 Sep. 2023
  • In 2018, neuroscientist Diego Bohórquez at Duke University discovered a direct vagal connection between nutrient-sensing cells in the mouse gut called neuropods and the brain.
    — Emily Underwood, Science | AAAS, 10 June 2021
  • Instances of ‘low vagal tone’ (a condition when the vagus nerve is not firing well) are associated with slower physical and emotional recovery after periods of prolonged stress.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2023
  • According to a study, Loving-Kindness-Meditation created a healthy vagal tone in participants.
    — Womensmedia, Forbes, 15 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vagal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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