Polyvagal is Dead…? (SPECIAL RELEASE)
Bridger & Caleb discuss the allegations that Polyvagal Theory is dead and the atmosphere they’d like to see within academic research.
Timeline and criticism of Polyvagal Theory
- The initial paper on PVT was written by Porges
- He had been working a lot on respiratory sinus arrhythmia in neonates
- Importantly, some high-risk premature infants seemed to have more resilience than others
- The heart was thought to be a good predictor of this
- He published a formal paper on this in 1995
- Then, in the early 2000s, some researchers started a counter-narrative
- Subsequently, this snowballed into numerous publications against PVT
- Usings fallacies and things that aren’t actually in the original PVT
- Further, there were claims that PVT was empirically invalidated and it should not be taught
- Porges published a book in 2021 to respond to these criticisms
Overview of Polyvagal Theory
- In the evolutionary process, there comes a time where specialization of existing features occurs
- Instead of evolving new layers
- Porges emphasis is the specialization that humans have developed in the ventral system
- Not the accretion
- Additionally, humans handle threats differently than other animals
- We have the capacity to self-calm and mitigate threat reactions through social cues and connection
- Which can be advantageous over always becoming autonomically reactive
- Example of a constraining the autonomic response (32:15)
- Ultimately, PVT can help us understand this reality
- Additionally, human responses to threats can be more primal if a threat is serious
- An individual’s experience, starting in-utero, will influence their reaction to a threat
- Example of experience changing threat response ( 45:50)
- In summary, PVT has several basic conclusions:
- Mammals have two vagal pathways
- Evolution and development provide insight into changes in the brain stem that allow mammals to slow down when encountering threats and promote social communication
Misconceptions and critiques of Polyvagal Theory
- Evolutionary focus on the autonomic nervous system is inclusive of all vertebrates
- PVT focus is only on the transition from reptiles to mammals,
- where the autonomic nervous system is specialized to support sociality
- This regulation of cardiovascular function is not inclusive to all vertebrates
- PVT states that mammals have a unique myelinated vagal pathway
- Further, this misconception says that since this is present in other vertebrates PVT is disproven
- Actually, Porges says that mammals have a uniquely myelinated vagal pathway
- Not that myelinated pathways are unique to mammals
- Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is equivalent to any respiratory heart rate interaction observed in any vertebrate
- Essentially, non-mammalian vertebrates are regulating heart rate and respiratory systems in a different way and that disproves the theory
- PVT is not saying that humans are the only ones that do this
- Or that there is only one way to do this
- Just that humans do it differently than other mammals that have the same ability
- Importantly, critiques focus on the biological structure itself
- But it’s the how and the why that structure is being used that makes the difference
- Regardless of PVT empirical validity, clinicians and patients have found it life-changing
- Additionally, co-regulation is an essential component to life
- Shifting from strictly biological validity to socially constructed utility
- “The utility that I found in talking about PVT seems to honor and validate the human experience in such a way that creates more intimacy than we had beforehand” (1:19:19)
- It doesn’t have to be art OR science, it can be both
Book & Articles
- Polyvagal Safety: Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation (IPNB) by Stephen W. Porges
- Season 2 Articles
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Credits
Executive Directors: Jennifer and Ryan Savage, Melissa Bentinnedi, Bridger Falkenstein
Hosts: Bridger Falkenstein, Caleb Boston, and Melissa Benintendi
Filmographer: Tyler Wassam
Podcast Editor: Jamie Eggert
Original Music Composers: Bridger Falkenstein and Caleb Boston
Show Notes: Jamie Eggert & Jordan Murray
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