Allostasis as a core feature of hierarchical gradients in the human brain

Yuta Katsumi; Jordan E Theriault; Karen S Quigley; Lisa Feldman Barrett

doi:10.1162/netn_a_00240

Allostasis as a core feature of hierarchical gradients in the human brain

Netw Neurosci. 2022 Oct 1;6(4):1010-1031. doi: 10.1162/netn_a_00240. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yuta Katsumi¹, Jordan E Theriault², Karen S Quigley², Lisa Feldman Barrett^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
² Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

This paper integrates emerging evidence from two broad streams of scientific literature into one common framework: (a) hierarchical gradients of functional connectivity that reflect the brain's large-scale structural architecture (e.g., a lamination gradient in the cerebral cortex); and (b) approaches to predictive processing and one of its specific instantiations called allostasis (i.e., the predictive regulation of energetic resources in the service of coordinating the body's internal systems). This synthesis begins to sketch a coherent, neurobiologically inspired framework suggesting that predictive energy regulation is at the core of human brain function, and by extension, psychological and behavioral phenomena, providing a shared vocabulary for theory building and knowledge accumulation.

Keywords: Active inference; Energetics; Functional networks; Interoception; Predictive coding; Predictive processing.

Plain language summary

Allostasis refers to the process by which the brain anticipates the needs of the body and attempts to meet those needs before they arise, and is one specific instantiation of a broader predictive processing framework. In this perspective article, we propose that allostasis is a basic function of the human brain subserved by an intrinsic architecture composed of two hierarchical functional gradients. Our framework, based on a synthesis of multimodal and multiscale evidence across species, begins to sketch a coherent, neurobiologically inspired research program suggesting that predictive energy regulation is at the core of human brain function, and by extension, psychological and behavioral phenomena, providing a shared vocabulary for theory building and knowledge accumulation.

Abstract

Plain language summary

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