Vagus nerve stimulation can induce states of alertness and arousal, not just calming pathways.

“turns out experimentally in the laboratory, many neuroscientists will stimulate the vagus to create states of alertness and arousal when animals, or even people believe it or not are close to dying or going into coma stimulation of the vagus is one of the ways to wake up the brain counter to the idea that it's just this I way of calming oneself down.”

“increasing vagal stimulation which by the way folks does not just calm people down vagal stimulation actually creates a lot of alertness so this is a a vast misconception out there — that vagel stimulation is all about calming”

“I'd like to uh keep trying to dispel the myth that Vegas stimulation is all about being calm it's really about being alert”

“So, earlier, I was talking about how, despite the fact that the vagus nerve is classified as a parasympathetic nerve, that it also can be alerting. It can increase levels of sympathetic nervous system activity, and that runs counter to the concept of parasympathetic, which is always labeled as rest and digest.”

“vagal nerve stimulation is one way to increase arousal and alertness so we need to revise our understanding the sort of popular understanding of Vegas”