Polyvagal Neurobollocks
- Ana
- 2 days ago
- 13 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Polyvagal neurobollocks is hogging the lane. I will be taking no prisoners.
This is a long time coming.
The polyvagal theory is, by and large, the biggest and the most powerful neurobollocks in the psychotherapy world.
Imagine a low-grade Triune Brain Theory and Paint-by-Numbers understanding of human nature taking the lizard brain for a walk, ending up in a pub, getting really drunk, dropping acid and then having a really bad trip? That’s polyvagal theory for you.
For those who don’t know it, this speculative ‘theory’ explains all of our mental states, not by one brain hemisphere, not by one brain circuit or even one area but by one of the three autonomic states we are in (you thought there were two autonomic states? nah. in therapy, we know better). You can’t make it up.
And because it promotes very simplistic views about mental states, mental health, human sociality and human nature as whole, I could also describe it as polyvagal ideology.
This piece is not going to be yet another tedious debunk of polyvagal theory (PVT) - it has been done rather well a number of times, and I am providing an extensive list of key references at the end. I am not getting into the debate neither - the polyvagal theory is not supported by neuroscience (if you don’t agree, please contradict me by finding one neuroscientist who supports it and put their name and associated reference in the comments, I promise to look into it - until then, the debate is closed).
Instead, I will share a little bit about my personal relationship with this idiosyncratic theory. Then, I will show you why you don’t need to be a neuroscientist (or physiologist) to know it’s bollocks - the neuroscience detail is here ultimately a red herring. Because I value all interactions with my neuro-curious fellow psychotherapy travellers, I will dive into some questions that repeatedly come my way (this, I will do in Part 2). Finally, I will explain why I consider the use of polyvagal theory to be equivalent to using, say, astrology, in therapy work. If you wouldn’t consider the latter as therapy worthy and epistemically sound, you should not see the former as such either.
How’s that for a plan? Let’s go.
I Don’t Drink Kool-Aid
Would you believe this: I did not set out in life intending to make neurobollocks debunking ma raison d’être. In fact, I initially tried to embrace it – and this is especially true for the polyvagal theory. It was through my attempts to understand the claims of this framework that I first began to realise just how deep the cracks of neurobollocks extend within the world of therapy.
As my chequered record of ice baths, ayahuasca retreats, fasting experiments, meditation, yoga – you name it – shows, I am by nature a trier; someone who will give almost anything a go, both in life and in my therapy work. The same was true for the polyvagal theory.
In fact, I still remember the very moment when the lightbulb went on. I was out running - I can still picture myself crossing the bridge I often run across - listening to an audiobook about the polyvagal theory, when I suddenly stopped and thought, “Hang on, this can’t be right.”
It was essentially saying that it is the mammals that developed sociality and communication and that prior ancestors only knew how to mobilise or shut down but not feel safe. It used the phrases such as being pulled “all the way back to our evolutionary beginnings” which sounded dubious and filled with evolutionary certainty that kind of alarmed me.
The book was the very popular “The Polyvagal Theory In Therapy”. Historically, this book, effectively delivered PVT to therapists.
Re-reading that book… Gosh … With its infantilising tone, I am getting again that image of inebriated triune brain theory and lizard brain tripping on acid.
As I mentioned before, this ‘theory’ posits that our mental states are essentially defined by the three autonomic states we find ourselves in - the sympathetic state, and two others derived from the parasympathetic state but unknown to the mainstream neuroscience and physiology (!!).
Now imagine this: all these billions of neurons consuming 20% of total energy of the body, all those networks, all those gradients of granularity in the brain tissue, all that brain connectivity. All those neurotransmitters.
Then imagine an additional layer - all that bio-behavioural synchrony, brain areas dedicated to social cognition, all that predictive processing, updating of predictions errors, dopamine and all. Yet, it all comes down to three autonomic states?
Attachment, sociality, trauma, addiction, you name it. It is all down to autonomic states regulation. The rest is decor.
For real? C’mon. I don’t drink Kool-Aid. Neither should you.
Tenuous Tenets: Welcome to the Yellow Brick Road
If you don’t live in the psychotherapy universe, you might have found yourself mystified by the recent flooding of the wellbeing space with terms like nervous system states and regulation. I will solve this mystery for you: it is the spectacular rise of polyvagal theory that has fuelled this spread of regulation-speak. It has now become a cultural trope. You can find references to “nervous system regulation” in everything from cooking recipes to interior design to general life philosophy. And when people say it is all about nervous system regulation, what they are really referring to is autonomic nervous system regulation.
According to PVT, the autonomic nervous system is not composed of two autonomic states, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic, but three. This is because the parasympathetic ‘state’, is, according to PVT, split into two separate states: the ventral vagal state and the dorsal vagal state. The distinction rests on which branch of the vagus nerve is said to mediate it, ventral or dorsal (hence the polyvagal theory).
Each of these proposed branches is said to have its own evolutionary history and to confer properties that supposedly reflect the behaviours of the ancestral creatures from which they emerged. So for example, the dorsal pathway emerged with the “ancient vertebrate ancestors” (the lizard brain, anyone?) who knew only how to freeze and immobilize when scared and so we behave like them when this pathway is active. On the other hand, being happy and joyous, socially engaged and feeling safe are framed as distinctly mammalian characteristics attributed to the ventral vagal pathway.
Can you see how this theory is taking the lizard brain to a whole new level?
And if you think I must be exaggerating, I quote:
“Polyvagal Theory gives therapists a neurophysiological framework to consider the reasons why people act in the ways they do. Through a polyvagal lens, we understand that actions are automatic and adaptive, generated by the autonomic nervous system well below the level of conscious awareness. This is not the brain making a cognitive choice. These are autonomic energies moving in patterns of protection.”
Yeah. Just throw away that prefrontal cortex.
And each one of these purported pathways and states gives rise to very specific set of characteristics and emotional states (no black and white thinking, misinterpretation and gross oversimplification whatsoever):
VENTRAL VAGAL (BEST, that’s where you wanna be): SAFE, GROUNDED, CONTENT, CONNECTED, HARMONIOUS, OPEN, COMPASSIONATE. It is the ANS Nirvana.
SYMPATHETIC (NOT GREAT, but better than dorsal): LACKING TRUST, ANXIOUS/ANGRY, FEAR WHISPERING, DIFFICULTY FOCUSING (the truth is that the sympathetic activation can bring extreme focus!), ALONE
DORSAL VAGAL (ROCK BOTTOM, it is the ANS Bardo, lizard style): ALONE, DISTANT, SLOWED BREATHING, DEPRESSED, HOPELESS, FROZEN, OVERWHELM
Because there is a number of specific things and ‘hacks’ you can do to move from one autonomic state to another, the framework becomes quickly very operational.
You see, once you start seeing the world through “the polyvagal lens” (there actually is a book titled “Our Polyvagal World”), it’s like seeing the Matrix, albeit a very inane one.
One dumb corollary of this theory is that social engagement can only be achieved during the parasympathetic ventral vagal activation - when on the ‘top of the polyvagal ladder’ (!!) (and I quote):
“Safety and connection are guided by the evolutionarily newest part of the autonomic nervous system. Our social engagement system is active in the ventral vagal pathway of the parasympathetic branch. In this state, our heart rate is regulated, our breath is full, we take in the faces of friends, and we can tune in to conversations and tune out distracting noises. We see the “big picture” and connect to the world and the people in it. I might describe myself as happy , active, interested and the world as safe, fun, and peaceful. From this ventral vagal place at the top of the autonomic ladder, I am connected to my experiences and can reach out to others. Some of the daily living experiences of this state include being organized, following through with plans, taking care of myself, taking time to play , doing things with others, feeling productive at work, and having a general feeling of regulation and a sense of management.”
Being organised, following through with plans, feeling productive and seeing the world as safe, fun and peaceful. What’s not to like? As I said, the ventral vagal is the ANS nirvana.
But then, I do have some annoying questions: how about being excited about seeing a friend we haven’t seen for a while? Sense of anticipation, maybe the heart pounding a little bit, feeling an overall excitement and arousal. Surely, that’s gonna be sympathetic activation? How about infatuation? Does falling in love belong to the ‘lower’ evolutionary states - it sure seems that way according to PVT. How about having some excitement mixed with anxiety and dread because there is a school play on and and we are in it? How about mixed feeling and grey zones. You get the idea.
Essentially, what follows from the tenets of this quirky theory is essentially that all positive emotions and pro-social behaviours such as connection, loving and being loveable, creativity, play and so on cannot co-exist with the sympathetic state. I object to that on the ground of common sense and I can’t even believe we fell for this infantilising, oversimplifying and totally unrealistic narrative about human emotions and sociality.
But that’s not all.
Follows a dumber yet corollary: we can only ascend from the state of the ‘dorsal vagal’ (collapse, shutdown, disconnection) into the ‘ventral vagal’ state (the ANS nirvana) by passing through the intermediary sympathetic state. In other words, there would be a strict hierarchy in these purported autonomic states, not only in evolutionary terms, but also as a behavioural sequence. This ‘hard neuroscience fact’ is encapsulated in the principle of the polyvagal ladder and I have witnessed it being not only disseminated through the polyvagal literature, cheat-sheets and handouts but in my own (‘neuroscience-informed’) clinical supervision .
In supervision, we would be told that for a client who is, say, depressed or presents with social anxiety (dorsal vagal, obviously, duh!), the only way to get better is first to get angry or anxious. It was a neuroscience fact, we were told, and therefore the therapeutic process had to follow that sequence. And of cours, there was a list of things we were could do - the polyvagal hacks, that would supposedly move the client from one state to another (I remember that dancing and singing were mentioned). If we were to fail in facilitating the enactment of this neurobiological reality, it was because we were doing something wrong. The 500 millions years of evolution couldn’t get it wrong, could they? It had to be us.
Is this enough? Did I make my case? I could go on about confounding of vernacular concept of ‘freezing’ and physiological freeze (as in animal behavioural studies). I could go into how one cannot remain ‘stuck’ in one specific autonomic state. I could go on about the concept-creep of what autonomic response or sympathetic response mean (the fawn response and such).
But the real question is: can I be bothered? Nah, let’s just look into how to see through this polyvagal neurobollocks.
Don’t Fall For the Red Herring: You Don’t Need to Be A Neuroscientist to Know It’s Bollocks
Luckily, you don’t even have to get into the nitty-gritty of hermeneutics of polyvagal science findings or the vagus nerve anatomy and evolution. That is, ultimately, a red herring here (red herring is something the distracts from the real question) and can quickly become a competitive sport whenever this theory is challenged.
Besides, it has been done time and time again by people who specialise in these questions and could critique it much better than I ever could (see the references in the end of this piece).
Instead, the common sense plus some understanding of neurobollocks red flags should suffice (I am suspecting that some alarm bells have already been set off). If you are new in this space though, for a crash course in neurobollocks please refer here, here and here).
So here are some killer arguments:
The brain uses around 20% of body’s energy. It is a huge metabolic expense for what represents only around 2% of body’s mass. To claim then that all mental functioning comes down to autonomic regulation just not make sense. Why would the whole brain then exist at all and use all that energy?
Objection on grounds on gross oversimplification: despite it being narratively satisfying, when it comes to complex human traits and behaviours, every oversimplified statement such as ‘[ALL X] is explained by [Y]’ is probably not true. The brain is a complex organ for a reason - because it does complex things.
The polyvagal theory is a self-referencing hypothesis. There are no neuroscience papers or neuroscience labs working on it (despite many working on the therapeutic potential of the vagus nerve). If this were a groundbreaking theory, we would see swathes of research labs working on it (as it is the case for memory reconsolidation research, for instance). Yet there is none.
PVT has not changed in 30 years, since its inception, despite major advances in neuroscience, social neuroscience and physiology.
So, ultimately one sentence suffices here: the polyvagal theory is not supported by neuroscience or physiology. Since its main claim to popularity and usefulness rests on the idea that it represents a neurobiological fact, it not being a neurobiological fact defeats its own purpose. As for a theory or an intervention to be neuroscience-informed there’s got to be some neuroscientists supporting it, right?
Finally, nobody is required to provide a point-by-point rebuttal of any idiosyncratic theory out there simply because someone say that it IS a theory. The burden of proof lies with the person who makes the claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The polyvagal theory has been around for a long time now, and as for the proof, we are still waiting.
Astrology, Fortune Telling And Polyvagal Theory
One cognitive device that seems to work when fending off the discomfort of cognitive dissonance is the argument that, even if the polyvagal theory lacks scientific grounding, its clinical usefulness justifies its continued use. In other words, if it works in the therapy room, what does it matter whether it is scientific or not?
This position seems pragmatic to the extreme, saying essentially: if is useful, then no questions asked.
Whether the polyvagal framework is genuinely clinically useful or whether it has just absorbed into its wake a series of concepts that already existed in psychotherapy and neuroscience, is a question I will address in the next post.
There is also a whole conversation to be had on whether, for a therapist, it always feels better to have any framework rather no framework, but also about the confirmation bias and the Barnum effect. But I won’t go there.
For now, let us assume that the client or the therapist feel that polyvagal theory is clinically useful (while not scientifically sound).
Truth be told, the same can be said for other unscientific frameworks, such as astrology or fortune telling. Many people find these practices useful and compelling.
For example, astrology is a useful framework for many people to get to grips with the uncertainty and complexity of life and our nature and they use it to better understand their personality, the ways they act in the world and how their interactions with some people seem meaningful and productive and with other they seem to clash. This is why astrology is still going strong. Right?
Would you, as a therapist, introduce astrology into your psychotherapy practice, on the grounds that people find it useful?
If the answer is no - ask yourself why not?
Maybe because that is the epistemic boundary you are not prepared to cross, even in the name of pragmatism.
The same epistemic boundary applies to polyvagal theory. I’ll leave everything else to your good judgement.
I Don’t Drink Kool-Aid. Neither Should You.
Because I started this piece on a personal note, I will end it on a personal note too.
I started off this journey of trying to understand the potential that neuroscience holds for psychotherapy by trying to understand the basics of what I had been told the neuroscience for psychotherapy is, and polyvagal theory is a big part of that. That is the truth.
Over time, I personally have left behind some of the oversimplifying and erroneous neuro-narratives that we commonly encounter. As I learn more and more, I see some amazing possibilities being opened to us, to take from what is happening in neuroscience world now and use it in therapy.
But then, being active in the community, I can see how much energy, elaboration, creative effort, intellectual grit, training and financial resources have been poured into polyvagal approached in psychotherapy. As a profession, we are becoming seriously invested on that road. And yet, it never was a road. It is a dead end.
In any field, there is only so much creative energy to go around. I came finally to see the huge investment in PVT we have made, as a field, as wasted potential of therapists’ curiosity, time and learning . That is, I think, what annoys me the most. Polyvagal theory is hogging the lane. And I wonder how many creative and neuroscience-informed roads we will not take as a result?
I will leave you with this: I don’t drink Kool-Aid. And I don’t think you should either. But that is ultimately down to you.
Things with the brain are complicated, but so are humans - and we can get to grips with that. We don’t need someone to reduce it to three basic states to explain it all. We can do better than that.
As always thank you for reading🙏.
In Part 2, I will answer some questions that often come my way when it comes to PVT.
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Further Reading And References
Your common and critical sense.
Special issue collection : Contributions of the Vagus to Psychological Functioning and Health
Individual pieces:
Functional anatomy of the vagus system: How does the polyvagal theory comply? (Spoiler: it doesn’t)
An overview of the phylogeny of cardiorespiratory control in vertebrates with some reflections on the ‘Polyvagal Theory’ :phylogeny studies the evolutionary history of life - this is to do with the ‘evolutionary’ claims by polyvagal theory. This paper debunks all the bollocks around reptiles, mammals, myelinated vagus only being present in mammals and the claims around determinism around sociality and the vagus branching:
The evolution of sociality and the polyvagal theory : I think the title says enough
Fundamental challenges and likely refutations of the five basic premises of the polyvagal theory : point-by-point take down by a vagus physiology world expert
Recent paper by a consortium of experts about state-of-the-art knowledge about the vagus physiology and influence on RSA Redefining respiratory sinus arrhythmia as respiratory heart rate variability: an international Expert Recommendation for terminological clarity (this paper indirectly refutes several PVT assertions)
Accessible Resources
Polyvagal theory a thoughtful examination of PVT claims