This month's episode of Brain Science features neuroscientist Peter Sterling sharing the key ideas for his new book What Is Health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design. In recent years neuroscientists have developed a growing appreciation of the predictive functions of the brain. Sterling takes this principle to the next level by asking what this means for human health. He argues that medicine's traditional focus on homeostasis ignores the much larger role of what he calls allostasis, which is a word he actually coined many years ago to capture the idea that the brain's predictive function is critical to health.

His book explores the ancient origins of both allostasis and homeostasis with an emphasis on why recent changes in the human life style contribute to the health problems of modern life.

One goal of this episode is to remind listeners that understanding how the brain works may be the key to our future survival.

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Links and References:

• What Is Health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design by Peter Sterling

• Principles of Neural Design by Peter Sterling and Simon Laughlin

• Peter Sterling (University of Pennsylvania)

• Schulkin J, Sterling P. Allostasis: A Brain-Centered, Predictive Mode of Physiological Regulation. Trends Neurosci. 2019 Oct;42(10):740-752. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2019.07.010. Epub 2019 Sep 2. PMID: 31488322.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31488322/

• Sterling P. Predictive regulation and human design. Elife. 2018 Jun 29;7:e36133. doi: 10.7554/eLife.36133. PMID: 29957178; PMCID: PMC6025954. Free PDF.

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