The Dynamics and Statics of Essential
Homeostasis has been the prominent perspective regarding the essential state of any system. We live in a world, supposedly, where there is a strong tendency for things to move back to some preferred state after being thrown out of kilter by some external event. Our blood pressure increases as we are determined to outrun the lion—be this lion real or imagined (Sapolsky, 2004). After we have eluded the lion our blood pressure returns to its normal level. The thermostat in our living room is set to return the temperature of this room to 70 degrees after it drops by several degrees when the window is opened for several moments on a chilly winter day. We will move back to the regular production rate of our high-priced chairs after our master craftsman returns from their sick leave.
All well-and-good. However, we are now finding that the world doesn’t really work this way. We live in a world of allostasis rather than homeostasis. First introduced by Peter Sterling (2020) with regard to physiological regulation of our body, Allostasis refers to an organism’s capacity to anticipate upcoming environmental changes and demands. This anticipation leads to adjustment of the body’s energy use based on these changes and demands. The concept of allostasis shifts one’s attention away from the maintenance of a rigid internal set-point, as in homeostasis, to the brain’s ability and role in interpreting environment meaning and anticipating environmental stress.
Peter Sterling (2024) puts it this way:
“Nearly all physiological and biochemical regulation is continuously and primarily managed by prediction, even the smallest changes when a thought flashes through the mind and predicts something that needs either raising or lowering various systems to adjust to the predicted demand. Corrective feedback is used secondarily when predictions fail. To me, this is the origin and purpose of the brain, to manage these predictions. When our body returns to “normal” from a deviation, normal is not due to a set point but to the brain’s prediction that this is the most likely level of demand. How the brain does this across time scales from milliseconds to decades and spatial scales from nanometers to meters, is a huge mystery.”
The interactions that occur between the brain and body are quick and fully integrated, making it difficult to distinguish between these two functions. The brain predicts and the body responses in a highly adaptive and constantly changing manner.
While Peter Sterling, as a neurobiologist, has focused on the body’s use of neurotransmitters, hormones, and other signaling mechanisms, we can expand his analysis by looking at the role played by stasis in all human systems. In order not to distort Sterling’s important description and analysis of the allostatic processes operating in the human body, I am introducing a new term: Polystasis. I have created this word to designate the multiple functions being engaged by complex human systems in addressing the issue of stasis. As Peter Sterling has noted, it is not simply a matter of returning to an established baseline of functioning (stasis) when considering how actions get planned and taken in a human system.
