The science underneath
Allostasis: the body gets ready in advance
In shortThe body gets ready before it needs to, and that preparation has a cost.
The idea
The body does not wait for sugar or oxygen to run low before reacting: the brain anticipates what will be needed and prepares the body in advance (the heart speeds up before a race, the mouth waters before eating). Barrett calls this managing the ‘body budget’. When predictions about what is coming stay uncertain for a long time, the body spends a lot of time getting ready, and that has a cost: sleep, appetite, tiredness and mood change.
What to try
- Before interpreting end-of-day behaviour, look at that day’s sleep, food and movement.
- Predictability in the parts of the day that do not need to change leaves more room for what is new.
- Notice the days of the week: Mondays and returns from holidays often cost more.
The common mistake
Using ‘budget’ as a battery that drains and explains everything. It is a way of talking about predictions about the body, not a reserve you can measure.
Want to know more?
Start here
Short, plain pieces by the researchers and good writers.
Books
Short and accessible for parents: the brain predicts, manages the body’s budget and is shaped with others.
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The science behind itHow strong the evidence is, the model, videos and references.
How strong the evidence is
Promising Good studies, but little tested with children at home or school, or the step to daily life is our interpretation.
Sterling (2012) defines allostasis as predictive regulation; Sennesh et al. (2022) formalise interoception as modelling and allostasis as control. ‘Allostatic load’ (McEwen) describes the accumulated cost of prolonged anticipation, but it is a construct with heterogeneous measures. In formulation, prefer describing the sequence (what uncertainty, for how long, with what effects on sleep, eating and activity) to invoking a lack of resources.
More technical books
Allostasis explained by the person who coined the term: the body regulates by predicting.
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External videos, chosen because they agree with these ideas. Bounded Uncertainty has no link to the channels.
References
- Sterling, P. (2012). Allostasis: a model of predictive regulation. Physiology & Behavior, 106(1), 5–15.
- Sennesh, E., Theriault, J., Brooks, D., van de Meent, J.-W., Barrett, L. F., & Quigley, K. S. (2022). Interoception as modeling, allostasis as control. Biological Psychology, 167, 108242.
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