Integration of Interoception, Decision-Making, and Affect: Allostasis as Predictive Processing

Abstract

Allostasis refers to the mechanism by which the brain changes bodily states to adapt to the environment in order to achieve stability or homeostasis. This concept was originally proposed by Sterling and Eyer in 1988. Recently, allostasis has been reconceptualized from the viewpoint of predictive processing, a theory arguing that the brain regulates perception and motor movement by generating predictions through inner models of the external world and self and minimizing the prediction error between the predictions and sensory signals. This idea provides integrated explanations of a wide range of phenomena, including homeostasis, decision-making, and the accompanying emotions and consciousness. Although this theory is a hypothesis, empirical evidence has been proposed in recent years. This article introduces the theory of predictive processing of allostasis, recent related research findings, and issues to be examined in the future.