Polyvagal theory, first articulated by Stephen Porges, offers an unexpectedly powerful bridge between the physiology of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the dynamics of memetic transmission and propagation.

Since Polyvagal theory is controversial in both neuroscience and psychotherapy, let me introduce it with a section from Stephen Porges’s signature paper, and later link it to memetics, which enhances both theories.

The evolution of the autonomic nervous system provides an organizing principle to interpret the adaptive significance of physiological responses in promoting social behavior. According to the polyvagal theory, the well-documented phylogenetic shift in neural regulation of the autonomic nervous system passes through three global stages, each with an associated behavioral strategy. The first stage is characterized by a primitive unmyelinated visceral vagus that fosters digestion and responds to threat by depressing metabolic activity. Behaviorally, the first stage is associated with immobilization behaviors. The second stage is characterized by the sympathetic nervous system, which is capable of increasing metabolic output and inhibiting the visceral vagus to foster mobilization behaviors necessary for ‘fight or flight’. The third stage, unique to mammals, is characterized by a myelinated vagus that can rapidly regulate cardiac output to foster engagement and disengagement with the environment. The mammalian vagus is neuroanatomically linked to the cranial nerves that regulate social engagement via facial expression and vocalization. … From this phylogenetic orientation, the polyvagal theory proposes a biological basis for social behavior and an intervention strategy to enhance positive social behavior. (Porges 2001)

The emergence of sociobiology and psychobiology

While classical evolutionary psychology tends to treat cultural transmission as a cognitive or symbolic process, Polyvagal Theory draws attention to the autonomic conditions under which communication, meaning-making, and cultural learning become possible at all. In this respect, it functions as the biological “grammar” underlying the memetic field: a set of autonomic constraints and affordances that determine which information patterns an organism can receive, process, or enact at any given moment.

The theory proposes a hierarchical architecture of three distinct states: the ventral vagal complex (signalling safety and social engagement), the sympathetic mobilization system (activating fight–flight responses), and the dorsal vagal complex (associated with immobilization, collapse, and dissociation). These states are not merely physiological; they constitute different modes of being—each with characteristic patterns of sensation, perception, cognition, and relational orientation. Crucially for memetics, each autonomic state defines a unique “memetic permeability,” shaping both the fidelity and the bandwidth of memetic exchange.

With this, we are reopening not only the sociobiology, so much despised theory of Edward O. Wilson (Wilson 1980), but also opening a yet unexploited concept of psychobiology. The concept of NOCEMA (Drapal 2025a), the non-overlapping co-evolution of two magisteria, one that belongs to physis (the real in psychoanalytical terminology) and another to culture and memes (the reality), becomes reinforced with this.

The ventral instability on its own

In the ventral vagal state, the organism experiences safety, connection, and co-regulation. This state supports integrated prefrontal activity, nuanced prosody, and reciprocal social communication.

The sympathetic state, by contrast, narrows attentional focus and shifts the organism toward rapid appraisal and action in fight-or-flight mode. When sympathetic arousal dominates, memetic processing becomes compressed: content is simplified into binary categories, emotional coloration intensifies, and group-level markers gain salience. This state favours mobilizing memes—slogans, identity cues, threat narratives, and political rallying signals—whose evolutionary advantage lies in their capacity to coordinate groups quickly under perceived danger. Sympathetic arousal thus transforms the memetic field into a competitive landscape characterized by speed, clarity, and reduced nuance.

The sympathetic state is hysterical at both the individual and social levels. It is marked by high tension, rapid shifts from one perspective to another, and, if it persists, is devastating for the individual and society. We can clearly see such a situation in contemporary Western civilization, with individuals who have lost their low-frequency, persisting (traditional) values. The ventral phase cannot cope with the sympathetic activity because both lack stability. The ventral memetic activity, even though it relies on social interactions, cannot sustain a constant fight-or-flight mode. Rationality of ventral activity is not enough to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomous nervous systems, as reflected in heart rate variability (HRV).

Dorsal vagal dominance marks a more profound shift into immobilization or dissociation. In this state, symbolic reasoning and reflective cognition become offline, yet the organism remains highly susceptible to archetypal and identity-forming memes. These low-frequency, high-impact patterns—mythic motifs, trauma imprints, existential symbols—operate beneath conscious processing. Their stability and persistence reflect the evolutionary antiquity of the dorsal vagal system, which supports energy conservation and defensive withdrawal. Trauma, from a memetic perspective, constitutes a distortion of this autonomic–memetic interface, pulling the individual into attractor basins dominated by archetypal or defensive patterns.

The necessary balance of systems

The connection between memetics and polyvagal theory becomes even more compelling when memetics reevaluates the “higher” ventral stage and the “primitive” dorsal stage. Human mental stability, namely, depends on their synchronization. Consequently, the ventral state provides the optimal substrate for the reception and transmission of strategic memes—the high-order, recursive, and symbolic patterns that underpin ethics, science, aesthetics, philosophy, and cultural innovation —only if grounded by dorsal systems. Ventral activity requires cognitive flexibility, emotional stability, and social reciprocity; they thrive only when autonomic physiology supports trust, curiosity, and sustained attention. In this sense, the ventral vagal system depends on the parasympathetic “high-bandwidth channel” of memetic evolution.

As explained in The Trauma and the Crisis (Drapal 2025b), traumatic events, physiological or psychological, develop into a crisis when they are not symbolized. In such a case, low-frequency archetypal memes remain subconscious and, as a result, are in discord with high-frequency ventral memes. Only when ventral memetic activity opens to the dorsal vaginal backbone does mental and social stability emerge. Such an activity is called symbolization in memetics. If practiced regularly, we do not need support from psychotherapists. If we do not symbolically address traumatic events, then they pile up and start to create cognitive dissonances that eventually make our lives miserable. In such a case, an individual and, for that matter, a society need psychotherapists to help them with the symbolization process and the resolution of the perceived crisis.

Simplified diagram

The diagram connects three neuro-physical foundations with mental emergencies up to memes. The twist lies in the interconnectedness. As much as three neuro-physical states are interrelated in a feedback loop, so “higher” mental states emerging from each neuro-physical node create feedback loops among themselves and “back” to neuro-physical nodes. The diagram shows that physical (genetic) foundations influence memetic emergencies, and that our rational, agitational (emotional), and archetypal memetic emergencies also influence the neural backbone.

The diagram also reinterprets the non-overlapping co-evolved magisteria (NOCEMA) paradigm, which posits the parallelism of two magisteria (genetic/memetic; physical/mental), as well as the co-evolutionary interplay between them.

The conclusion

Taken together, Polyvagal Theory provides a compelling account of how memetic fields interface with physiological states. Autonomic regulation determines not only the availability of cognitive resources but also the organism’s openness to symbolic complexity, social reciprocity, and narrative integration. In this way, polyvagal dynamics do not merely influence memetic processes; they co-constitute them, shaping the ecological conditions in which memes compete, cooperate, and evolve. The result is a bio-cultural framework in which meaning, embodiment, and evolution converge: memes thrive only in bodies capable of receiving them.

 

References

Drapal, Andrej. 2025a. Memes Beyond Genes, The Hidden Code of Culture. Nova Univerza, Faculty for Psychotherapy.

Drapal, Andrej. 2025b. “The Trauma and the Crisis.” Management Studies 13 (1). https://doi.org/10.17265/2328-2185/2025.01.005.

Porges, Stephen W. 2001. “The Polyvagal Theory: Phylogenetic Substrates of a Social Nervous System.” International Journal of Psychophysiology 42 (2): 123–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8760(01)00162-3.

Wilson, Edward O. 1980. Sociobiology: The Abridged Edition. Abridged edition. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press.