Reimagining pain as an allostatic imperative: perspectives from contemplative traditions.
Catherine Prueitt, Idil Sezer, Matthew D. Sacchet
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2025 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niaf049 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Allostasis Contemplative traditions Neurophenomenology Pain |
| Key points | Proposes that pain is an allostatic imperative to adapt part of one's body, requiring both homeostatic and heterostatic responses. |
Abstract
The motivational force of pain is undeniable. But what pain commands us to do, how we might satisfy this command, and if our experience of pain is inherently linked to suffering are far murkier topics. This paper brings together empirical studies of pain reprocessing during advanced meditation, the rise of allostatic paradigms to account for biological self-regulation, and the philosophy of pain in the classical Sanskrit philosophical tradition of Pratyabhijñā Śaivism to argue that pain is an allostatic imperative to adapt a part of one's body. We theorize two components of an allostatic response, heterostatic and homeostatic, that work in tandem to address pain as an allostatic command. Homeostatic responses are error-corrective in that they seek to protect an organism by returning to a previously stable steady state. Heterostatic responses are anticipatory in that they seek to better prepare an organism to meet future challenges by proactively shifting to a new steady state. We note that an organism's successful adaptation to its environment depends not just on error-correction, but also on anticipatory change. We theorize that a broad range of affect properly accompanies pain. We propose potential directions for empirically developing this model. We also note the possibility that this model could be extended to account for mental pain.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 24
- Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 12, 2013
- Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. American Psychologist 2006
- Resting-state fMRI functional connectivity and mindfulness in clinical and non-clinical contexts: A review and synthesis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews February 22, 2022
- From many to (n)one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews September 1, 2021
- A Framework for the Empirical Investigation of Mindfulness Meditative Development Mindfulness April 13, 2023
and 19 more in the library