Making the World Safe for our Children: Down-regulating Defence and Up-regulating Social Engagement to ‘Optimise’ the Human Experience

Abstract

The Polyvagal Theory helps us understand how cues of risk and safety, which are continuously monitored by our nervous system, influence our physiological and behavioral states. The theory emphasizes that humans are on a quest to calm neural defense systems by detecting features of safety. This quest is initiated at birth when the infant needs for being soothed are dependent on the caregiver. The quest continues throughout the lifespan with needs for trusting friendships and loving partnerships to effectively co-regulate each other. The Polyvagal Theory proposes that through the process of evolution, social connectedness evolved as the primary biological imperative for mammals in their quest for survival. Functionally, social connectedness enabled proximity and co-regulation of physiological state between conspecifics starting with the motherinfant relationship and extending through the lifespan with other significant partners. The theory explains why feeling safe requires a unique set of cues to the nervous system that are not equivalent to physical safety or the removal of threat. The theory emphasizes the importance of safety cues emanating through reciprocal social interactions that dampen defense and how these cues can be distorted or optimized by environmental and bodily cues.

Autonomic regulation of preterm infants is enhanced by Family Nurture Intervention

“…In the current study, maturational changes in autonomic regulation were evaluated during the period while the infants were receiving FNI or SC in the NICU or shortly thereafter. Polyvagal theory forms the theoretical bridge linking the attribute of emotional connection in FNI as a facilitator of more optimal maturation of autonomic regulation and enhanced co‐regulation (Porges, ; Porges & Furman, ). Polyvagal theory highlights the ontogenetic transitions in the neural pathways that regulate autonomic state and provide an understanding of how autonomic state provides a neurophysiological platform for the optimal co‐regulation between infant and caregiver.…”

Family nurture intervention in the NICU increases autonomic regulation in mothers and children at 4-5 years of age: Follow-up results from a randomized controlled trial

“…However, at the individual dyad level, in some cases the magnitude of the effect of the intervention on RSA was stronger for the mother than for the child while for other cases the effects were stronger for the child than the mother thus leading to a lack of mother-child correlation. Nonetheless, both calming cycle theory and polyvagal theory predict that the multiple positive prosocial, attentional, and executive function effects reported in the FNI-NICU study should be associated with increases in cardiac vagal tone (RSA) in both mother and child [52,53]. Indeed, enhanced vagal regulation over the life span should result in multiple psychological and physiological benefits [54].…”

Do Better in Math: How Your Body Posture May Change Stereotype Threat Response

“…An upright posture tends to project an assertive, dominant, and powerful person; whereas sitting in a collapsed posture may project a submissive, defeated, or depressed individual. These postural cues about the status of an individual are processed nonverbally through neuroception of the observer (Porges, 2009(Porges, , 2015Porges & Peper, 2015).…”