The Social Engagement System: System that Expresses and Acknowledges Emotion
What Porges here calls the "Social Engagement System" relates closely to what I call the "Frame of Communication," which is the "portrait" of a person's head and face plus to some degree enough of the chest to be aware of breath and heartbeat. This is what we include in paintings and photos that are meant to show the person and what is shown on television programs, called "talking heads." Most of us, looking at this part of another person, can judge emotion and even deceit/honesty and related elements of judgement. But what Porges means is something more like friends and neighbors, relationships and memberships. The people who help you be who you are.
The first couple of paragraphs of this section, plus a graphic, are highly technical description of how the little parts of the ear/eye/nose/throat/face evolved incredibly from the now unnecessary bits of the gill arches left from before creatures grew lungs and how the nerves responded with the ability to control "eyelid opening (i.e., looking), facial muscles (e.g., emotional expression), middle ear muscles (e.g., extracting human voice from background noise), muscles of mastication (e.g., ingestion), laryngeal and pharyngeal muscles (e.g., prosody and intonation), and head-turning muscles (e.g., social gesture and orientation)."
What struck me most was realizing that my trouble with hearing is not loudness, but distinguishing voice from noise. I didn't know such a thing happened. A clue cluster for people who aren't "receiving" is "poor eye gaze, difficulties with extracting the human voice from background sounds, blunted facial expression, minimal head gestures, limited vocal prosody and poor state regulation." We see these things in classrooms when kids are in trouble. Often we think they are signs of bad attitude and willfulness when they are actually physical dysfunction.
Contemplative Practices and the Social Engagement System
The "Social Engagement System" described above is involved with group contemplative practices like "listening, chanting, breathing, shifting posture during prayer and even facial expressivity". It helps the necessary feeling of safety -- because of the original voice of the mother being higher -- if there are female singers, or boys, or even castrati. We do not think of choirs of angels as singing bass!
Another important variable is the breath, the length of intake or exhale and the ratio between the two. Chanting helps to control this. More exhaling in comparison to inhaling is good. As singers, musicians, and actors know, breathing from the abdomen is best, but they may not realize that it helps the vagal influence on the heart, usually slowing it.
When using chants or other words through the breathing, the pharynx participates by changing pitch and regulating resonance. The little muscles of these areas help a person hear human voices even in the midst of noise. This area makes small adjustments that help the brain sort, record, and respond -- which is part of calmness.
Posture shifts (like rocking) affect receptors called as "baroreceptors" which signal the brain about blood pressure and heart rate. "Baroreceptors are mechanoreceptors located in the carotid sinus and in the aortic arch. Their function is to sense pressure changes by responding to change in the tension of the arterial wall. The baroreflex mechanism is a fast response to changes in blood pressure." (Wiki) Sometimes kids rock to comfort themselves. Rocking is part of some Jewish prayer practices.
"As an individual becomes more proficient with the rituals, the autonomic nervous system becomes more resilient and exhibits a greater capacity to down-regulate defense and to support states that promote health, social behavior, and compassion." People like to go near someone who is calm and to accept what they say. Rituals or calming activities don't have to be in religious sanctuaries, since they are not necessarily sacred, but safety is essential. The "passive" cues to safety that are carried by the overall state of the body, not necessarily conscious, are helpful in perceiving safe places. They are a "feeling."
This discussion uses two newly coined words to describe processes we didn't think about because we didn't know they existed. One is "dissolution" and the other is "neuroception".
"Dissolution" describes autonomic reactivity as a phylogenetically organized response hierarchy in which evolutionarily newer circuits inhibit older circuits. . . . Thus, it is insufficient for an individual solely to abstain from defensive behaviors. The individual must also be in an autonomic state that is incompatible with defensive behaviors." Mellowed out.
"Neuroception is a complex neural process that evaluates risk in the environment independently of cognitive feeling." Sometimes one just gets a "bad feeling." Or a gut feeling. But can't say why. It's not rational but sensory, an unconscious perception of clues.
DISSOLUTION
Three circuits are defined by the polyvagal theory. They respond in turn according to how new they are, more modern ones earlier. If the newer ones are somehow disabled, the older neural circuits begin to operate. This is true in the brain in the case of damage or illness.
"The human nervous system, like that of other mammals, evolved not solely to survive in safe environments, but also to promote survival in dangerous and life-threatening contexts." So it keeps a fall-back function. The calmer the person, the better the newer functions work.
NEUROCEPTION
So, to become able to use social engagement strategies (like those necessary in schools and governments) two adaptive tasks are necessary.
1. Assess risk.
2. If it seems safe, "inhibit the more primitive limbic structures involved in fight, flight, or immobilization (e.g. death-feigning) behaviors."
Mega-churches and TV religion that depend upon shouting, threats, images of destruction, hatred, and vengeance do not provide either of these possibilities. In fact, they can trigger ancient defences like going unconscious, dropping. Such an environment doesn't need words to be real, but can through neuroception prevent the feeling of safety. Porges suggests that a silent retreat is enabling. In another place he mentions how noisy hospitals are, with machines buzzing and beeping or people's footsteps and voices continuing. Busy people are unaware. But it inhibits the feeling of safety that calms patients.
Traditional religion, like massive stone buildings with very high ceilings, promote quiet and a feeling of safety. The harmonics of ritual chants might be reassuring. If it works, a person feels protected in this place as a context of safety. But some might have an apprehensive feelings of being unwanted and vulnerable, maybe asked to leave. It might be strange.
No comments:
Post a Comment