Title Vagal tone and oxytocin as common indicators of peacebuilding through martial arts
grayscale photo of people walking on the street (unsplash.com) Caio Amaral Gabriel
This article offers two proposals. The first proposal is that martial arts training can promote the combination of the main neurobiological mechanisms underlying peace: interpersonal synchrony, oxytocin and activity of the ventral branch of the vagus nerve. The second proposal is that since resting cardiac vagal tone and oxytocin levels are objective and quantifiable characteristics of biological processes, i.e. biomarkers, they can be used as common indicators to measure the contribution of martial arts to peacebuilding, thus favoring the realization of Action 2 of the Kazan Action Plan (KAP) and of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Based on the concept of the “ecology of peace” (Britto et al., 2014), I proposed that martial arts can be tools for peacebuilding by developing in practitioners the socio-emotional competence necessary to cultivate sustainable peace (Gabriel, 2021a). However, while martial arts have the potential to strengthen peace and development (Gabriel, 2022c), methods for assessing progress towards strengthening peacebuilding remain a challenge (Caplan, 2019). Fortunately, emerging studies, albeit in a modest amount, have shed light on the neurobiological activity resulting from martial arts practice, making it possible to elucidate potential common indicators to quantitatively measure peacebuilding resulting from martial arts training programs.
Peace is a multi-component concept and can be understood as an outcome, a process, a human disposition/state of mind, and a culture (Leckman et al., 2014). What these components of peace have in common is that they all represent conditions of safety in which individuals and groups have the opportunity to equitably develop their full potential (Morgan et al., 2014).
In principle, humans are on an enduring lifelong quest to feel safe, a biological drive that appears to be embedded in DNA (Porges, 2022). As the concept of natural selection informs, complex living systems such as humans evolved to ensure their own survival and reproduction, passing on their genes and thus ensuring the preservation of the species (Siegel, 2020). Throughout evolution, humans have developed protective mechanisms as natural responses to the need to survive. One of these mechanisms is the dynamic and non-conscious monitoring of activities inside the body, body movements, and the surrounding environment, identifying safety cues and signs of threat or danger to life, in order to involuntarily and adaptively modify neurophysiology according to the interpretation of these monitored variables, a process called neuroception (Porges, 2011).
The neuroception of safety provides the necessary neurophysiological foundation for healthy development throughout life, secure attachment patterns, positive interpersonal interactions, prosocial and peace-associated behaviors, learning, restoration and healing of the organism (Porges 2011; 2017; 2021; Carter & Porges, 2014). Of fundamental importance, in neurobiological terms, the primary experience of peace and safety is one that combines (1) synchrony with another person; (2) increased levels of oxytocin; and (3) activation of the ventral branch of the vagus nerve (Morgan et al., 2014; Carter & Porges, 2014).
So, based on the synthesis and integration of a series of independent studies on neurobiology and on martial arts, I proposed in previous works (Gabriel, 2022d; 2021b) that martial arts training experiences reflect the concept of “rough-and-tumble play”, and exercise “social engagement system”, generating a positive resonance (Fredrickson, 2013) that involves interpersonal synchrony, the first factor associated with primordial experiences of peace and safety. Then, I proposed that martial arts have the potential to strengthen resting cardiac vagal tone (Gabriel, 2022d; 2022b; 2021b); and can increase endogenous oxytocin production from safe training experiences (Gabriel, 2022a; 2021b), the other two factors associated with primary experiences of peace and safety. In this sense, it becomes possible to propose that martial arts training can promote the complete combination of all the elements that constitute an experience of peace and safety, i.e, martial arts can offer practitioners the ultimate experience of a neuroception of safety.
Whereas interventions that strengthen the body and socio-emotional competence (such as martial arts; Gabriel, 2021a) contribute to peacebuilding (Britto et al., 2014); that the primordial experience of peace and safety is constituted by interpersonal synchrony, oxytocin and activity of the ventral branch of the vagus nerve (Morgan et al., 2014; Carter & Porges, 2014); and that vagal tone and oxytocin are biomarkers, and can be respectively measured non-invasively by heart rate variability and saliva, they can be used as potential common indicators to measure the contribution of martial arts for peacebuilding, thus favoring the realization of Action 2 of the KAP (UNESCO, 2017) and of the SDGs (UN, 2015).
Longitudinal studies may provide evidence of the effectiveness of martial arts training programs to cultivate peacebuilding by demonstrating increases in resting cardiac vagal tone (as indicated by heart rate variability) and increases in baseline oxytocin levels (as indicated by saliva) from the practitioners.
Finally, in my journey of study in the field of martial arts, I have been seeking, like a detective, to open the “black box of martial arts” (UNESCO & UNESCO-ICM, 2019), investigating the potential mechanisms that could be behind the mental, socio-emotional, moral and behavioral changes resulting from the practice of martial arts, and thus contributing to elucidate common indicators that can serve as objective and quantitative evidence to support or refute testable hypotheses in martial arts studies. By elucidating some mechanisms (e.g. vagal tone and oxytocin), what seems to be becoming increasingly clear to me so far is that if we want to strengthen peace and development through martial arts, we must promote safety experiences. These findings expand the notion of safety beyond physical integrity as a way of safeguarding practitioners in quality physical education also to the subjective feeling (neuroception) of safety; and also transform a subjective experience (neuroception) into objective data (e.g. neuroception of safety reflected in resting cardiac vagal tone). The emerging principle of these studies is that neuroception of safety is much more than a prerequisite for successful martial arts training: safety is peacebuilding, and the key to the transformation we wish to promote in the world through martial arts. REFERENCES Britto, P. R., Gordon, I., Hodges, W., Sunar, D., Kagitcibasi, C., & Leckman, J. F. (2014). Ecology of Peace. In J. F. Leckman, C. Panter-Brick, & R. Salah (Eds.), Pathways to Peace: The Transformative Power of Children and Families (pp. 27–39). The MIT Press. ※ Views in this writing are the author's own.
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