Does "zap the wonder nerve" mean "stimulate the vagal nerve"?

Context:

Head hurts? Zap the wonder nerve in your neck
16 August 2013 by Linda Geddes

"IT WAS like red-hot pokers needling one side of my face," says Catherine, recalling the cluster headaches she experienced for six years. "I just wanted it to stop." But it wouldn't – none of the drugs she tried had any effect.

Thinking she had nothing to lose, last year she enrolled in a pilot study to test a handheld device that applies a bolt of electricity to the neck, stimulating the vagus nerve – the superhighway that connects the brain to many of the body's organs, including the heart.

The results of the trial were presented last month at the International Headache Congress in Boston, and while the trial is small, the findings are positive. Of the 21 volunteers, 18 reported a reduction in the severity and frequency of their headaches, rating them, on average, 50 per cent less painful after using the device daily and whenever they felt a headache coming on.

This isn't the first time vagal nerve stimulation has been used as a treatment – but it is one of the first that hasn't required surgery. Some people with epilepsy have had a small generator that sends regular electrical signals to the vagus nerve implanted into their chest. Implanted devices have also been approved to treat depression. What's more, there is increasing evidence that such stimulation could treat many more disorders from headaches to stroke and possibly Alzheimer's disease (see "The many uses of the wonder nerve").

The latest study suggests it is possible to stimulate the nerve through the skin, rather than resorting to surgery. "What we've done is figured out a way to stimulate the vagus nerve with a very similar signal, but non-invasively through the neck," says Bruce Simon, vice-president of research at New Jersey-based ElectroCore, makers of the handheld device. "It's a simpler, less invasive way to stimulate the nerve."


More:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929303.200-head-hurts-zap-the-wonder-nerve-in-your-neck.html