AUTONOMIC PATIENCE AND WALTER CANNON

Neuroscience and especially psychophysiology have many reasons to thank Walter Cannon (1871-1945), a renowned physiologist in his day and a popularizer of scientific concepts stemming from his research into the autonomic nervous system that keeps all of us alive. His book, The Wisdom of the Body (1932), paved the way for the ongoing interest in the mechanisms by which the body self-regulates. His initial studies involved the regulation of digestion but later spilled over into other aspects of homeostasis and the processes of which we are not usually aware but which have their own autonomous functions.

The autonomic nervous system has two main components: the sympathetic branch and the parasympathetic branch. Each is a counterpoint to the other in the back and forth that characterizes our normal daily metabolism. The parasympathetic system is composed of four branches: the vagus nerve, the facial, oculomotor, and glossopharyngeal nerves. Cannon recognized early on that there were many layers to the functioning of these two branches, processes of which occurred in response to stimuli external to and within the body. He initially researched the mechanisms of digestion from chewing and swallowing to elimination. And he also determined that psychological states could impact the functioning of the autonomic system as a whole, thus implicating the mind and the body as a holistic system. We now take much of this for granted because of all the work that has been done by those scientists standing on Cannon's shoulders.

What fascinates me is how autonomous the intricate systems are but also how our knowledge of them now allows us to have some conscious effect on how they operate in certain situations. Cannon characterized the sympathetic response as “fight or flight” (“freeze” was added later) and the parasympathetic response as “rest and digest.” Most people don't recognize the connections present day techniques involving the body have with our basic physiology. But how could they not? What we experience as input from our senses is relayed to sites in our bodies, sites that are intimately connected with one another. These connections are the subjects of contemporary research. For instance, the functioning of the parasympathetic branches other than the vagus moderate responses we have to other sentient beings by way of facial expressions (facial nerve), tone of voice (glossopharyngeal nerve), and eye contact (oculomotor nerve). In these times of persistent social isolation, our need for physical contact in some form (actual or virtual) becomes a forceful impetus in the calming and restoring process of emotional stability. When face-to-face contact and communication is absent then we experience an increase in stress leading to frustration and sadness as well as depression.

What we recognize now, too, in relation to the vagus nerve is that the flight/fight/freeze response is an instinctual response to threat or trauma. We are hardwired to respond to danger as a way to avoid death and a way to promote survival. Of course, we are no longer confronted with the dangers faced by our primitive ancestors, but the primitive neural response is physiologically intact as far as can be determined. So, we might not be in any danger from marauding saber toothed tigers, but we do confront traumatic situations nearly every day in one form or another. It is now known that repeated or persistent stressful situations can have deleterious effects on the heart and vascular systems. Blood vessels constrict sympathetically in order to divert blood flow to the organs that will extract us from danger; the muscles, the liver, the lungs, and the heart. Over time, with exposure to stressful environments and situations, we layer on a more permanent and disabling functioning of our bodies. There is even evidence now that this underlying adaptation to stress can be an inherited tendency in our offspring without actually changing the underlying genetic code, work done on Holocaust survivors and their children, for instance, and called epigenetics.

Cannon's research was on the cutting edge of physiology at the time but many of his experiments and insights are still the basis for our understanding of how complicated the mechanisms of our bodies are in their totality. The physiological systems that maintain their own homeostasis within the complex of interrelated systems and of which we are usually unaware are integrated to provide the body with the means of normal functioning. As they go about their work, they support not only the body but also what we call the mind, not a surprise, as all systems are interrelated and interdependent. Normal physical health manifests as normal mental health. The distant effects of the gut microbiome, for instance, are the subject of contemporary research into how physical systems impact brain function in both the waking and sleeping states. Enzyme systems and protein metabolism in the bowel are significant contributors to brain blood flow and this effect has implications for conscious thought, including instinctual emotions. Cannon's research focused on the effects of epinephrine and other obvious chemicals on fight and flight. The fight/flight response occurs, it seems, on an instinctual, hardwired, platform of cascading effects throughout the body when one is challenged with danger or any other fearful circumstance. This effect occurs prior to any conscious recognition of the threat and exists to avoid extermination and to support survival. Survival means that reproduction and persistence of DNA can be preserved in the population. So it is with the survival instinct of most animals.

The countering effects of the sympathetic response (fight/flight) are those of the parasympathetic nervous system. Whereas the gut clamps down during a survival challenge, it opens up to “rest and digest” when the threat passes and the parasympathetic nervous system is predominant. This functioning is also at a subconscious level and trades off with the sympathetic nervous system response. We could not survive if all we had operative was a constantly turned on sympathetic response. We could not tolerate the constricted gut, the constricted heart with its rapid heart beat, blood vessels constricted producing hypertension, the steal of blood flow to the muscles at the expense of the brain. We would be in a constant state of high alert without any way to calm ourselves.

What recent neuroscience has revealed is that there are emotional states and physical states associated with our present lifestyles that exhibit this chronically turned on sympathetic response. Not only soldiers from war zones, but also anyone subjected to chronic stress are now known to have what is described as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The triggers for this response are often obvious, such as those related to combat in war, or repeated sexual abuse, but many are now believed to result in very subtle versions of PTSD. It is much too early to tell, but it is suspected that the chronic political, economic, and social disruptions manifested over the recent years (poverty, food insecurity, coercive and oppressive political regimes resulting in large scale migrations) have created situations of chronic sympathetic overload. The high alert activity of the nervous system has translated into emotional fragility with a loss of dependable sources of stability, a loss of meaning, and a subsequent loss of hope.

What is true for the functioning of the sympathetic nervous system as a silent engine is also true for the parasympathetic branch. However, unlike with the sympathetic branch, it is possible to consciously engage the parasympathetic system and to use its calming effects to short-circuit the effects of the fight/flight response and return to a more stable emotional state. We are not necessarily at the mercy of the survival instinct because what challenges our survival now as a species is no longer represented by the saber tooth tiger or the marauding lion. We have more complicated threats like climate change, economic collapse, a viral pandemic—all of which are so complex as to be almost incomprehensible and inchoate. Fight and flight don't make sense in the face of these threats but our nervous systems don't make the distinction between the threats we see before us and those that we perceive “out there” somewhere in the surrounding universe. As a result, we are on high alert more often than is good for our physical/mental health.

The interventions we can enlist to bring us back to a state of calm and emotional stability are now known to include various practices that include body movement (tai chi, qigong, yoga, or other forms of exercise) and a focus on the breath which also engages the parasympathetic system and has been used as an entry point to contemplation, meditation, and prayer—all ancient methods of conserving focusing attention (mindfulness), and calming. In these ways we are making way for a mindset that promotes greater expansiveness and openness of perception. This is how we open our hearts and minds to our own miraculous metabolism and that of others. By starting with our own bodies and minds we are able to bring into our awareness the bodies and minds of all other beings and things.

One of the remarkable aspects of this greater openness and acceptance is how this can lead to the virtues we now find so elusive in our culture imprinted with the signs of instinctual survival. We have the ability to trade the primitive fight/flight response for one of intentional care, patience, love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In this way we can control how we respond emotionally by staying in contact with our bodies, cultivating those practices that assist us in calming and in seeing what life offers less as a threat and more of an opportunity to share. We begin to see that what we share as humans in all cultures and groups is greater than what separates us by ideology or dogma.

We have Walter Cannon to thank for the wisdom of the body he was able to define by research. His experiments provide the background even today for the knowledge and simple techniques that support our best selves in our daily endeavors because we can approach them with greater calm and perspective. We don't have to decipher the scientific data in order to benefit from what Cannon discovered. And we have the ability and the capacity to make the most of the beneficial aspects of a body system devoted to our well-being, just as its counterpart sympathetic system supports us when we need it in different circumstances. We have some control over what the body provides us. It is a useful intention to live life as much on the parasympathetic path rather than on the sympathetic one to promote our individual health as well as to bring us into common cause with all others in all corners of the globe. What is universal about the adaptations of our species could become the universal response we need at this point in our evolution. The universal response would be to support the parasympathetic path for all of us as a path towards patience, peace, and prosperity.