When someone’s frowning, or beaming, or gaping in surprise, they’re wearing their heart on their face.
That’s because the muscles that control facial expression are linked to the smart vagus, says Stephen Porges, PhD.
Thanks to the vagus nerve, the emotions we feel are displayed on our faces and in the sound of our voices.
Without the vagus nerve, in fact, we wouldn’t be able to tell how anyone else was feeling.
Here’s Stephen’s explanation for why the vagus nerve makes empathy possible – and what it means to clinicians.
It’s only about 3 minutes long, so please take a look.
But empathy isn’t the only thing the vagus nerve is responsible for. To find out more about polyvagal theory, click here.
Have you ever learned more about a client from their voice and facial expressions than the words they were saying to you? Please share your experience in the comments below.
In 2021, there’s even more to this topic. If connection between vagus nerve and gut brain or vagus nerve and heart is switched off, then this points to an explanation for people who behave as if they have no empathy for others.
As an extreme of this, I think of Klu Klux Klan members of the early 1900s.
Connections with gut brain and heart can be switched off thru trauma where usually a young child is “forced” to switch off a gut or heart connection due to double bind with an abusing parent or adult.
My face is partially paralyzed due to stroke, so people tend to have trouble “reading” me. I notice that I’ve developed the habit of not looking at people when I talk to them, I think partly because I don’t want to be distracted by their confusion while I’m paying attention to what I’m trying to say. But that only increases the disconnect. So if I’m hearing Dr. Porges correctly, it sounds like the interpretation of nonverbal facial cues is pretty automatic, and there’s really nothing I can do to compensate for the incorrect signals I’m giving out. But what’s interesting is that when somebody has known me for just a little while, it becomes less and less of a problem. It’s like their brain just learns to compensate for the difference, and begins responding to my face’s “language”.
MaryAnne,
This is really interesting, thanks for sharing. This reasserts human adaptability and the motivation to connect. I’d love to keep this post and quote it, do I have your permission?
Jo (email to jo2dayone@tiscali.co.uk )
I wonder if this is one reason many people in the US, Canada and Europe feel uncomfortable around Moslem women wearing face-covering veils? We depend so much upon facial expression for our empathy to be triggered. And what about voice inflection and Chinese language with its pitches? Are the modulation cues in each language different, or is there something somewhat universal about them?
This may help. A client of mine took her little boy who had ADHD and was on the autistic spectrum to the doctor’s surgery. After sitting down a Muslim woman came in dressed in black with her face covered. The little boy yelled out: ‘Oh look, Mum, there’s Darth Vada’. The mother was appalled until she saw the woman’s body language. She was laughing with her eyes and holding her stomach. She corrected her son but he made it worse by yelling: ‘Well she looks like him. I know in today’s cultural climate people may easily be offended but a Muslim friend explained to me: ‘We know – we’re not stupid’.
Humans are not the only empathic beings. Our canine friends certainly show great amounts of empathy.
What an important reminder of what it means to be fully human, thank you for that.
Empathy is not ” uniquely human”…the WAY it is processed and perhaps the frequency of it as a referent might be. Why do we keep trying to hog all the good stuff!? Could it be a bit of insecurity and self-doubt?
This unconscious repetition of how super special we humans are is a problem, the consequences of which are visible and audible everywhere around us, all over the planet.
Part of re-wiring our brain needs to be …more healthy humility, not hand-wringing, and not hubris, just a down-to-earth gratitude for all the amazing life-forms(and nrvvous systems!) around besides our own. Thank you.
Thank you.. I agree
In my previous comment about the extent of electgromagnetic technology’s failure to adequately convey – communicate – connect socio – emotional components in informed human interaction I neglected to comment on the hypothalamus / pituitary/ ANS / CRH -glucocorticoids vagus link which Dr. Buczynski has brought to our attention and is definitely a part of the embodied signalling, certainly affecting the striatal and other musculature, heart beat, breathing, tension physiology.
This doesn’t just apply to texting but to every technological intervention between the embodied emotional signals and clues, including those similarly functioning and evolutionary purposed inputs, perceived and sensed audiologically through parody. It is disquieting to realize that we view pixels and electromagnetically encoded , keyboard impelled, black symbols on white background viewed through flat, plastic monitors projecting to similar flat plastic as somehow conveying some degree of true or accurate representation of social and physical reality : all without the subtle , crucial affective qualities and tones. This is why Restak and others see an ADHD and autistic ( my addition ) society developing .
Thank you, Dr. Porges, for this succinct explanation of polyvagal theory. As an adolescent clinician, I am constantly trying to find an effective and powerful way to explain to teenage patients that texting leaves out the actual data: emotional truth. Teenagers love texting because it gives them a control they don’t have face to face, but allows for emotionally dishonest “communication”. I’ll look forward to the webinar in order to learn better ways to express all that is missing from the texting, or FB or Instagram “chatting” worldin which many of them live.
You can always challenge them to Google oxytocin and vassopressin bonding and point out that it’s not possible to get oxytocin at least without the face. And remind them of moments where they have low oxytocin.
Basically texting = no sense of saftey or connection because no oxytocin.
Pat Ogden’s observations *activate* me in a very good way?! I use the term activate in much the same way it is used in trauma recapitulation. If I explain with mindfulness technique, the same areas for enthusiasm *hurt*, as when I re-experience head trauma (the negative stuff). Ouch! Is it possible neurologically that many of the same circuits process both the joyful/ecstatic and the terrible/shocking information?
Pat is on target in saying that in trauma, one’s Cognitive function is *not in sync* with the Affective sense. This is the golden spot–where a healing can occur; when the two are skewed beyond recognition.
Also, I love that there is now a repeated correlation between attachment/bonding in the developing infant and relating/respect for the adult…instead of *debunking* the narrative in therapy– develop relationship. Who cares what happened or did’t happen…we just want people to heal! Diagnosis is dwelling on illness, not wellness.
I see Pat’s concept of Relational Mindfulness (touch or mirroring feeling) and Joan’s mention of Self-RegulationTherapy (going inside to check on the body’s feelings) require compassionate acknowledgement too (*so you feel XXX, that’s intense, it’s amazing you lived through that, what do you believe about yourself after that incident? I notice that your eye is twitching, I understand how you feel… touch in again-what other sensations do you experience inside?).
At that point, I think rewiring is possible: it is initiated by the empathic/respectful response (the listening,curiosity,physical mirroring/saying the right words). Without relationship it’s a 50 minute story-telling with no movement forward toward self-confidence and ability to visualize happiness and success. Carl Rogers had it down better than Freud, didn’t he?
Emotion is the heart of the matter.
Dr. Porges got me licking my lips for middle ear EXERCISES for Autistic Spectum auditory problems; Then he did not demonstrate any of them!
Occurred to me that vitamin B enhances myelination of nerves–so probably true of the vagal nerves, yes? This interview was packed with information, so helpful and encouraging. Porges was great with the TSA analogy, noting where kids choose to seat themselves, and the subject of safety and self congrats for Borderlines. Thank you all.
Wanted to glean if a closing of the throat/esophagus that happens to constrict speech in hyper-arousal is related to the vagal nerves too? Wanted more more more about the heart to brain connection including the connection of the reciprocal tension cranial pump to the heart’s regulation of beats. Is the cranial pump connected to the vagal nerves?
Liked the term interoception (sp?)for tracking oneself somatically. Seigal helped me get the meaning much better than prior to his comments. Ron, so even you find people frightening?: funny-insightful. Also, your comment simplifying three different functional pathways–fight-flight,
rewards-status, and tend-befriend was brilliant. Joan said so much in such a short time I could not keep note-taking.
This (for me) was the best presentation yet.
Thanks for your feedback about the webinars. We broadcast every week at 5pm and 6:30pm EST. It takes a tremendous amount of staff power to produce and run these webinars. We are glad that many thousands are able to attend Wednesday nights and enjoy the broadcasts.
I agree with the posts about the time issues – the times are too restrictive and at peak times for seeing clients. And especially what happened last Wednesday – I centered my calendar around it then had to keep changing it due to your difficulties – it was very frustrating and not customer friendely. It was up to us to change versus you providing a solution we could relisten to it later without paying. If you are providing the service for free then make it accessible. Many organizations will allow up to 24-48 hours for the replays and then if want more then upgrade into their member levels.
I have to agree with the comments by other responders with regard to time accessibility.
I am afraid that the NICABM staff is not aware of the well known fact from the marketing strategies – the more the webinar will be accessible the more people will be willing to become a golden member. Making restriction to just one hour (impossible to make for so many people for one resaon or other) simply deprives NICABM of many potential golden members. I do hope NICABM staff will become aware of this simple truth creating a win-win situation for everybody concerned soon.
You ask, “Have you ever learned more about a client from their voice and facial expressions than the words they were saying to you?”
Some years ago, I was the client in an exercise with other NVC-trainers. I was asked to express my internal state by a posture, all silent. I connected to my inner state of stressfull despair, expressing this by clenched fists, rage in my facial expression and tension all over my body. I did this with my eyes closed standing close to three people surrounding me. I was asked to open my eyes and look into the others’ eyes, one by one, as they expressed empathy towards me. As I looked at one of them (who had been my mentor for several years), just one second or less, I spontaneously burst into tears, all tension being released in a split second and experienced a tremendous emotional shift from anger to deep sadness and vulnerability. I felt relief, need for support, opening my heart towards myself, and it lasted for quite a while.
It’s still a magic moment to look back at, really reminding me that empathy is the quality of our presence, not our intellectual understanding nor the words we use.
All I know about the Vagus nerve is that it is stimulated by a coffee enema.
Does the Vagus nerve have anything to do with liver-spleen function? If so, in what way?
That really catpures the spirit of it. Thanks for posting.
Hi Heidi, Now my scar barely shows too. It takes a long time but these thgins to heal. Yeah, I would just get the thing shut off because of how it doesn’t help but there’s no one around here that has VNS equipment (I’ve moved since I had it done). – Natasha
I can’t believe Ruth is offering it for free! What a gift…..thanks!
She is in business and the whole point of what she is selling is to be able to listen to it whenever you want as many times as you want when you purchase it.
These are the best in the world at what they do.
I make the time…and would make the time no matter where i lived to catch the free broadcast.
And the purchase price is low for the quality of information from the best researchers giving you the latest.
Thanks Ruth!
Mark J. Ryan
I wholeheartedly agree! This is an incredibly powerful series. So enriching. Worth every penny. If I couldn’t afford 147 I would move everything around to make sure I could attend. This is not a cost to me it’s an investment.
Yes, extended availability, even 3-4 hours would be most appreciated. I teach during this time period and am sorry to miss this series. Many thanks, Wendy
Have been studying brain/mind function all my life.
Using music to get to a level of mind where learning is more efficient.’
Offering Transformation Clearing to people around the world to integrate and align more of their dimensional and other dimensional selves–and clear the old programs that are no longer serving them.
Thank you so much for offering your work so that we make this a better world for all!
I have to agree with the comments by other responders with regard to time accessibility. It would be wonderful to have this series available for those of us who time conflicts. Wednesday is just not do-able for me. This material is so timely and perhaps better than anything else I have heard regarding the latest brain science, it is a shame that it is not available for at least one full day.
the current timings are very helpful indeed as they allow folk in the Uk and the west to be able to access the seminars. Any later, and it would be very difficult/impossible. However a 24 hour availability would be great to allow as many people as possible to see this wonderful series which has been magnificent so far and needs to be disseminated across the globe i.m.o. The price of the full set is above the reach of so many, yet the contents are life-changing. This, partly, because most of the information is known and intuited by many (common knowledge) the yeilding up of our power to ‘Science’ means that nowadays many can only feel justified in doing what they already know, if ‘science’ backs it up. Of course, the ideal might be to start to trust our inner knowledge once more, the use of science having disempowered us so. I acknowledge my ambivalence having struggled to adapt to a system that is not about Authenticity and inner Authority but quite the converse.
Mun
You ask, “Have you ever learned more about a client from their voice and facial expressions than the words they were saying to you?” In response I can relate an experience I had long before I became a counselor myself, as a therapy client.
I told my counselor about how much information–that I trust more than words–I get from body language, which included facial expressions and voice inflection to me. He told me that body language was a myth and I should never use it in the place of the spoken word.
I disagreed so strongly with his stand that I did not return to that counselor. However, in later years, when I was teaching about body language to my college organizational psychology class, I had refined my knowledge about the therapeutic use of body language to the point that I taught my students that reading body language was an intuitive art and for most reliable interpersonal communications, one should validate what they read by checking out their understanding verbally with the person. Complete with the behavior description–which forces the body reader to become conscious about just what features they are taking to mean what–here is a rather trivial example: I just saw you smile when I offered you a drink? Did my offer please you? Or better yet, more open ended: What did that smile mean, I wonder?
I will let my readers apply my example to a deeper, more therapeutic level themselves.
Love your word choice of *reliable interpersonal communications*. Observation: lots of folks assume that they know what’s going on in others and they are dead wrong, especially when they are neither listening nor willing to ask outright (be in a state of curiosity and suspension of disbelief).
I agree with the issue of time accessibility. I have yet been able to see one webinar, and I am a believer who wants to deepen my knowledge n understanding. Wedsdays is the time of highest demand; in any case, many of my clients can only come after work, so that 4 of 5 nights I work till 7:00 p . Please make the webinar more accessible. It would make for a Win-Win situation as Ralph suggests above. Thank you!
Since there’s no replay available, 8PM PSTwould be a better for folks like me on the west coast.
( That’s 5PM EST )
Why make it soooo difficult for us working folks?
As it is now, I’m unable to see or hear Dr. Porges’ presentation (2PM PST) OR sense if it’s worth the after-lecture cost.
We both lose.
That’s the facts,
ralph : (
“Soft vocal music” is mentioned as a help to prepare an atmosphere. Any suggestions for what that might be? I’d think I wouldn’t want “easy listening” or something that we might be familiar with or know the lyrics to, as that can lead to distraction or triggers. Likewise, perhaps it could be soothing. Any insight here would be great. Thank you.
I would like the sessions of this web seminar be made available 24hrs so we, at different time zones could listen to it.