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The vagus nerve is the primary highway of the parasympathetic nervous system—responsible for rest, digestion, and the shift out of stress states. Scent reaches the structures that regulate the vagus nerve faster than any other sensory input, bypassing the thalamic relay. The olfactory pathway connects directly to the hypothalamus (which regulates vagal output) and the amygdala (which modulates vagal tone). Specific compounds—cedrol, α-santalol, linalool—act on these structures at the receptor level, producing measurable parasympathetic activation in seconds.