Reimagining pain as an allostatic imperative: perspectives from contemplative traditions.
Neuroscience of consciousness January 1, 2025 Catherine Prueitt, Idil Sezer, Matthew D Sacchet
Pain is an allostatic imperative that commands an organism to adapt a part of its body. Drawing on empirical studies of pain reprocessing during advanced meditation, allostatic paradigms of biological self-regulation, and the philosophy of pain in the classical Sanskrit Pratyabhijñā Śaivism tradition, this paper theorizes two components of an allostatic response: homeostatic responses, which are error-corrective and aim to return to a previous stable state, and heterostatic responses, which are anticipatory and shift to a new steady state to better prepare for future challenges. Successful adaptation depends on both error-correction and anticipatory change. A broad range of affect properly accompanies pain, and the model may extend to mental pain.