Control Your Vagus Nerve to Improve Mood, Alertness & Neuroplasticity

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 111 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode I explain how your vagus nerve—an extensive neural pathway linking your brain and body in both directions—powerfully regulates your mood, digestion, alertness and even certain food cravings, and I explain how you can activate certain vagus nerve pathways to improve your heart rate variability (HRV), a key marker of health and longevity. I also explain how to control vagal pathways to enhance your focus and alertness to improve learning and neuroplasticity. And I explain how your vagus nerve controls levels of serotonin in both your gut and brain, impacting your mood and emotional resilience and how to keep that pathway robust. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Joovv: https://joovv.com/huberman ROKA: https://roka.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Vagus Nerve 00:02:43 Sponsors: LMNT & Joovv 00:05:41 Cranial Nerves, Inputs (Afferents) & Outputs (Efferents), Sensory & Motor 00:12:40 Vagus Nerve & Sensory Pathways, Body & Brain 00:18:30 Sensory Information, Chemical & Mechanical Information 00:23:49 Sympathetic & Parasympathetic Nervous Systems, Vagus Nerve, Tool: Calming & Auricular (Ear) Sensation 00:30:19 Sponsors: AG1 & ROKA 00:33:38 Vagus Nerve Motor Outputs 00:36:00 Autoregulation, Improving Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Tools: HR Deceleration 00:49:46 Aging, Declining HRV, Health, Activity, Tool 00:52:31 Tool: Exercise, Increase Alertness for Cognitive & Physical Activity, Motivation 01:04:26 Sponsor: Function 01:06:14 Adult Neuroplasticity & Learning, Acetylcholine, Alpha GPC Nicotine 01:11:48 Tools: High-Intensity Exercise, Increase Alertness, Focus & Learning; Sleep 01:18:14 Serotonin, Gut, Brain & Mood, Depression & SSRIs 01:21:34 Serotonin, Improve Mood & Gut Health, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Tools: Low-Sugar Fermented Foods, Tryptophan 01:28:49 Mood, Depression, Gut Health & Vagal Signaling, Probiotics 01:32:12 Calming Down via Vagus Nerve, Tool: Neck Peri-Arterial Vagus Stretch 01:42:00 Tools: Calming Down, Humming, Extended Exhales 01:46:38 Recap 01:48:46 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:08.7	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:15.4	Today, we're discussing the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve, or what neuroanatomists call cranial nerve 10,
0:21.6	is an extremely interesting nerve because when we hear the word nerve,
0:25.6	we often think of a small, you know,
0:28.6	connection between one thing and another, the wires of the nerve,
0:31.6	which of course we call axons.
0:33.6	If you didn't know that, now you know, they're called axons.
0:36.6	But actually, the cranial nerve is an extensive pathway.
0:40.3	It's a whole set of connections that link the brain and body.
0:43.3	In fact, in many respects, it looks kind of like its own nervous system
0:48.3	within the traditional nervous system of the brain and the spinal cord,
0:52.3	the connections between spinal cord and muscle.
0:55.0	The vagus nerve is so vast.
0:57.0	It spreads out through so much of the body.
1:00.0	And as you'll learn today, it's connected to so many interesting
1:03.0	different brain areas and has so many interesting different functions
1:07.0	that it deserves, well, an entire episode of this podcast. The other great thing about
1:12.5	the Vegas nerve is it is highly actionable, meaning what you will learn today, if you already
1:18.4	know something about the Vegas nerve, is going to change what you know and believe about the
1:22.4	Vegas nerve. What you hear today will also, if you don't know or you're not familiar with the vagus nerve,
1:28.5	is going to educate you on the latest about the Vegas nerve.
	...

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