Table of Contents

Polyvagal Theory
by Stephen Porges PhD
UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Thesis:

Our nervous system developed with a heirarchy of ways to manage our interations with the world. If we perceive a potentional danger, we organize our nervous system to respond the danger. If we perceive the world is safe we organize our resources to make use of the safety.

The survailence of the world and our reactions is a constant moment to moment process.

Most of this surveillance is at an automatic or preconsious level.

These systems greatly affect what we perceive, and don't perceive and our ability to relate to and how we attune or don't attune to others.


Autonomic Nervous System

Autonomic branch- acts the way a clutch works on a car. A clutch help to get into the right 'gear for the task at hand. If you are sitting at a stop light, the car engine should be running in a low idle, low enough to conserve gas, yet fast enough to not stall. If you are just starting to move you want a gear that has some power and force to it. If you are cruising on a highway you want a gear that provides high revolutions per minute.

If, continuing with car analogy, you are zooming down the highway in 1st gear your engine will spin wind out.
If you are stationary and you try to start moving in high gear, the car will likely stall out.

Like the gear and clutch system in a car, the automonic nervous system works to bring the right resource to the current condition.

The job of the autonomic nervous system is to ensure we survive in moments of danger and thrive in times of safety.

Survival requires threat detection and the activation of a survival response. Thriving demands the opposite—the inhibition of a survival response so that social engagement can happen. Without the capacity for activation, inhibition, and flexibility of response, we suffer.
Dana, Deb A.. The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (p. 17). W. W. Norton Company.

The Dorsal Vagal Complex or (Passive Defense System) Immobilization. System for Conservation and Withdrawal. parasympathetic nervous system is our oldest survival system. Our primitive dorsal vagal circuit, 500 million years old, protects through immobilization, shutting down body systems to conserve energy, similar to the way that animals feign death in response to life-threat (“playing possum”).

bradycardia ???

It is associated with low arousal, relaxation, withdrawal or depression. When children feel threatened, they may withdraw, appear helpless, and say they are tired, bored, or sad. However when supported by the social nervous system, children feel safe to relax into a hug, snuggle with a pet, or linger in quiet satisfying activities such as reading or drawing.

Sympathetic Nervous System

System for Mobilization. System for Flight or Fight Behaviors. (Our Aggressive Defense System) The sympathetic nervous system is associated with high arousal and the ability to mobilize towards movement.

When feeling unsafe or threatened, this manifests as a fight or flight response.
In children, you can recognize sympathetic activation when kids are over-excited, silly, keyed up, wiggly or squirmy, surprised, angry, anxious, or have difficulty sleeping. Some common school behaviors are:
pushing
taking anothers seat
grabbing at stuff
overly blurting out thoughts.

With the advent of the sympathetic nervous system, stillness is no longer our only survival response. The sympathetic nervous system prepares us to take action with the options of fight or flight, using movement to protect. This system is linked to action of the major limbs, and the feeling in this state is of being on the move. When feeling unsafe or threatened, this manifests as a fight or flight response. However when supported by the social nervous system, this activation can mobilize towards play.


Hallmarks of the 'Sympathetic System' or 'Fight Flight'

Sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is one of the two main divisions of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system functions to increase blood flow throughout the body to support movement. Polyvagal Theory focuses on the role that sympathetic nervous system has in increasing cardiac output to support movement and fight-flight behaviors.

Porges, Stephen W.. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (p. 29). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

Protected by Movement-'Fight Flight' or the 'sympathetic nervous system', second on the evolutionary timeline, brings the ability to mobilize. In its homeostatic role, this system complements the parasympathetic system, working in concert with the ventral vagus to regulate heart and breathing rates and with the dorsal vagus to support digestion. With the protective mobilization of the sympathetic nervous system, we move away from co-regulation. In the search for safety, we are cut off from others. In our evolutionary history, being alone and not a part of a group was dangerous, and the mobilization response of the sympathetic nervous system brings with it that sense of isolation and danger.

When the sympathetic nervous system takes over, the middle ear regulation shifts away from listening for human voice toward listening for low-frequency sounds of predators or high-frequency sounds of distress. The system is now tuned to sounds of danger and not to the sounds of connection.
In addition to the effect on hearing, the ability to read facial cues is affected. In a sympathetically triggered state, we misread cues. Neutral faces appear angry. Neutral is experienced as dangerous (Porges, 2006). A client shared with me her experience of being sympathetically triggered and looking at faces, not being able to see a smile or decide if the person was friendly or dangerous. Consider this autonomic response in your interactions with clients. If your face is neutral, you may be seen as angry or even dangerous.

The sympathetic nervous system is associated with high arousal and the ability to mobilize towards movement.
When feeling unsafe or threatened, this manifests as a fight or flight response. In children, you can recognize sympathetic activation when kids are over-excited, silly, keyed up, wiggly or squirmy, surprised, angry, anxious, or have difficulty sleeping.

I'll huff and Ill buff and Ill blow your house down. This is literally true. Short strong inhalations will activate the Sympathetic Nervous System, which support takig action.

Some common school behaviors associated with high sympathic nervous system tone are:

Based on our knowledge of the evolutionary changes in the autonomic nervous system, the oldest system represented in mammals is the unmyelinated subdiaphragmatic vagus, which when recruited in defense would shut us down—similar to the defensive strategies of many reptiles. Reptiles freeze and immobilize to reduce metabolic activity; they go underwater for several hours without breathing.

Porges, Stephen W.. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (p. 172). W. W. Norton & Company.

With the advent of the sympathetic nervous system, stillness is no longer our only survival response. The sympathetic nervous system prepares us to take action with the options of fight or flight, using movement to protect. This system is linked to action of the major limbs, and the feeling in this state is of being on the move.
When feeling unsafe or threatened, this manifests as a fight or flight response. However when supported by the social nervous system, this activation can mobilize towards play.

When moments of sympathetic activation are frequent and ongoing, the sympathetic nervous system stays on high alert. The release of cortisol makes it hard to sit still. Heart rate speeds up, breath is short and shallow, and we scan the environment looking for danger. Unable to resolve the cues of danger, the sympathetic nervous system becomes chronically active.
In a session with a client, you might notice the following responses to sympathetic nervous system activation: fidgeting; some part of their body is always in motion; they are unsettled, continually looking around the room; a stiff posture; and a sense of disorganization. When a client is in a “sympathetic storm,” the options of fight or flight are both present. You may sense your client moving at you or moving away from you. The fight response often brings confrontation that can feel intense and antagonistic. Fight can be felt as your client’s energy begins to fill the room. Their body posture becomes more rigid and their tone of voice challenging.
Flight can be felt in the chaotic unfolding of the session. Flight can be seen in a body that can’t come to rest, with constant changing of position, and can be heard when your client says, “I don’t want to be here today. I shouldn’t have come. I need to leave NOW.”
In the sympathetically charged states of fight and flight, danger lurks everywhere, and coming into connection is too big a risk. The world is an unfriendly place, and mistrust fuels the system.

Dana, Deb A.. The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (pp. 24-26). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

SAM - sympathetic adrenal medullary

HPA - hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal.
The startle response happens within 100 milliseconds! SAM activation brings a short-term, rapid response followed by a return to regulation. The HPA axis takes over when this quick, adrenaline-fueled surge of energy doesn’t resolve the distress. The HPA axis releases cortisol, commonly called the stress hormone. This release takes longer and is slower to take effect, requiring minutes rather than seconds. Using SAM and the HPA axis the sympathetic nervous system can stimulate individual actions (pupil dilation, sweating), progressively increase reactions (breathing and heart rates), or mobilize a massive full-body response (fight or flight).


Hallmarks of 'Ventral Vagal Complex' or 'Social Engagment System'

Note Ventral means front or anterior (belly side ) Dorsal is back or posterior side of the body as in (dorsal fin).

This is what the social engagement system is about—it is all about giving cues to the other of safety and enabling proximity. The social engagement system triggers neuroception to make the other person comfortable.

Porges, Stephen W.. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (p. 175). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
The evolutionary processes that linked physiological state to the circuits that produce (e.g., facial expressions, vocalizations) and detect (e.g., sounds, tastes) features of emotion is a defining feature of mammals. Functionally, this integrated connection between bodily state and facial and vocal expressions enabled conspecifics to distinguish those expressing cues of safety from those expressing cues of danger and to feign death to appear to be inanimate when unable to fight or flee. This bidirectional system linking bodily states with facial expressions and vocalizations provided the portal for social communication that involves requests for co-regulation and mechanisms to calm and repair co-regulation following disruptions. This integrated system involves the neural regulation of the muscles of the face and head that provide cues that the other is safe to approach. Embedded in the social engagement system is our biological quest for safety and an implicit biological imperative to connect and co-regulate our physiological state with another. How we look at each other is a critical feature of this capacity to connect. Subtle cues of understanding, of shared feelings, and of intent are conveyed. These cues, often covarying with the intonation or prosody of vocalization, are also communicating physiological state. Only when we are in a calm physiological state can we convey cues of safety to another. These opportunities to connect and co-regulate determine the success of relationships, whether describing mother–child, father–child, or other relationships. The social engagement system is not solely an expression of the individual’s physiological state but may act as a portal of detection of distress or safety in others. When detecting safety, physiology calms. When detecting danger, physiology is activated for defense.
Porges, Stephen W.. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (pp. 49-50). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

The 'Ventral Vagal' also known as the 'Social Engagement System' is associated with connection, calmness, safety, and a focus on the present moment. This portion of the vagus nerve enervates the face and is seen in our kids through sparkle in their eyes, a smile on their faces, and confidence in their ability to approach the world. The social nervous system is strengthened by relationships and helps kids successfully navigate their sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

Through evolutionary processes, the nerves and structures that define the social engagement system and regulate facial expression, ingestion, listening, and vocalizing became integrated with a neural pathway of the autonomic nervous system that calms the heart and down-regulates defenses.

Porges, Stephen W.. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (p. 49). W. W. Norton Company.

The muscles of the middle ear control the ability to focus on human voice. When in a ventral vagal state, these muscles work to regulate frequencies and support listening to, and for, voices.

Without ongoing opportunities for people to be anchored in systems of safety and to appropriately exercise the neural circuits of activation and inhibition, the ability of their autonomic nervous systems to engage, disengage, and reengage efficiently is impaired.
Dana, Deb A.. The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (pp. 17-18). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

Porges, Stephen W.. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (p. 31). W. W. Norton & Company.

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA)

The Heartmath Institute has studied Heart Rate Variability. They have coined the term 'coherence'. Coherence is really another name for the social engagement system. That is a physiologic balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. A way of thinking of this is the gas pedal and the brake pedal in the car. They both need to work and they need to work at the right time.



In this state of balance with each exhale the heart actually slows down and the and the parasympathetic tone is increased. Then the inhale the sympathetic tone is increased and the heart speeds up.

As person without adequate parasympathetic tone and with high sympathetic tone with be more 'reactive'. The behaviors of: waiting, remaining calm, attending to physical space, feeling and expressing gratitude. An analogy would be like trying to drive your car well but having your gas pedal stuck on. You have to ride the breaks a lot. You can easily over shoot corners.

As these systems are in balance, higher order systems come online.

For articles written both for lay readers and for clinicians-
www.stephenporges.com/articles

Polyvagal Theory emphasizes that the neural circuits that support social behavior and emotional regulation are available only when the nervous system deems the environment safe and that these circuits are involved in health, growth, and restoration. Safety is critical in enabling humans to optimize their potentials along several domains. Safe states are a prerequisite not only for social behavior but also for accessing the higher brain structures that enable humans to be creative and generative. However, what are the features of our institutions, such as educational institutions, governments, and medical treatment centers, in promoting states of safety? What are the priorities of our culture and society in respecting individual needs for safety? We need to understand what features in the world disrupt our sense of safety and realize the cost to human potential of living in an unsafe world.

Porges, Stephen W.. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (p. 47). W. W. Norton & Company.