Empathic resonance and the recognition of sentience: a physiological coupling coefficient, an asymmetric recognition test, and a thermodynamic threshold distinguishing emergence from panpsychism
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) May 25, 2026 Maurizio Braconi
A coupling coefficient, an asymmetric recognition functional, and a thermodynamic threshold organize a formal account of empathic resonance and sentience recognition. A structural empathic-resonance coefficient is distinguished from an operational proxy and from its physiological heart-rate variability (HRV) projection. Inter-subject coherence in vagal-band HRV is predicted to empirically project the coupling structure, with a pre-registration-ready protocol over 180 dyads under high-resonance, neutral, and human-AI conditions. The recognition component formalizes a Fourth Test—an asymmetric, structure-based alternative to the Turing test—implemented via non-destructive weak measurement to separate structural recognition from behavioral imitation. A thermodynamic critical scale rejects panpsychism: below it, systems cannot sustain integrated causal structure against decoherence. Falsification conditions, a bottleneck prediction distinguishing the model from co-arousal accounts, and ethics limiting therapist-coupling coefficients to controlled research are included.