HoldsUp

Stephen Porges

Stephen Porges is a neuroscientist and psychologist known for developing Polyvagal Theory. His research focuses on autonomic nervous system regulation, brain-body connections such as the brain-heart axis, and the physiological underpinnings of psychological safety. He also investigates the impacts of trauma and adversity on autonomic function, as well as the development and clinical application of interventions related to Polyvagal Theory.

25 claims checked on air: 2 context 3 contradicted 16 supported 4 unverified

What they said on air - unverified

2 citing their own research

0:14:40unverifiedvery lowPolyvagal Theory: Why You Feel So Anxious All The Time - Dr

Most neural traffic in the autonomic nervous system consists of afferent signals traveling from the body organs to the brain, rather than efferent signals from the brain to the organs.

"we tend to focus on the brain neuro-regulation of the organs when most of the neural traffic is the body sending signals to the brain." (said at 0:14:40)

No published record matching the claim that most neural traffic in the autonomic nervous system consists of afferent signals traveling from the body organs to the brain rather than efferent signals from the brain to the organs was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:35:47unverifiedvery lowPolyvagal Theory: Why You Feel So Anxious All The Time - Dr

A remote government-funded study evaluating a vagal nerve stimulator and Sonic Augmentation Technology (sonacea) for long COVID showed that both interventions produced significant improvements in questionnaire-assessed fatigue, anxiety, and depression over a 4-week period.

"I've just completed a study on long COVID. I was part of an interesting uh government-funded project uh basically doing it remotely. And we basically the intervention was a vagal nerve stimulator, um which was developed by a colleague of mine, and another intervention, a sound intervention that I had developed with a with a basically it's called sonacea or sonic sonic augmentation technology... And basically, the sounds had the same effectiveness as the vagal nerve stimulator. It was very profound in terms of what it did over a 4-week period. And so basically, we had massive effects on all basically all the parameters we were measuring on. They were all uh questionnaires and symptom arrays... whether they had fatigue, and whether they were anxious or depressed, and basically all the indicators improved in a very, let's say, powerful way" (said at 0:35:47)

No published record matching a remote, government-funded 4-week trial comparing a vagus nerve stimulator against Sonic Augmentation Technology for long COVID and questionnaire-assessed fatigue, anxiety, and depression was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:46:25unverifiedvery lowPolyvagal Theory: Why You Feel So Anxious All The Time - Dr

The acoustic frequencies characterizing human vocal social communication and the maternal voice span approximately 500 to 3,000 Hz (or 1,500 to 3,500 Hz).

"So anything it's like 500 to 3,000 will be fine, or uh basically it enables the frequency." (said at 0:46:25)

No published record matching the claim that acoustic frequencies characterizing human vocal social communication and maternal voice span approximately 500 to 3,000 Hz was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:46:35unverifiedvery lowPolyvagal Theory: Why You Feel So Anxious All The Time - Dr

The vocalization frequencies of mammals, including dogs, cats, and horses, overlap with human social communication frequencies in the auditory spectrum.

"Actually, all mammals, even little mice-like animals, they vocalize in a certain area of the auditory spectrum that is very similar if you looked at their full spectrum. So dogs, cats, and horses overlap with our uh band of social communication. So you can calm a dog or a horse or a cat by talking to them." (said at 0:46:35)

No published record matching the claim that all mammals vocalize within a similar band of the auditory spectrum overlapping human social communication frequencies was located; this does not prove the claim false.

Fact-checked episodes

Publications