{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "capturedAt": "2026-10-27T11:21:25.730Z",
  "sha256": "e567d3f506229de7589d1a45358570a8346d20162e15b08ac8b24ce74e3d1524",
  "work": {
    "id": "TAP-CON-0002",
    "type": "CON",
    "kind": "concept",
    "key": "allostasis",
    "locale": "en",
    "path": "/topics/allostasis/",
    "title": "Allostasis",
    "description": "Allostasis describes adjustments that meet environmental demands and maintain functional stability. The Chinese edition uses an explanatory translation as a reading aid and retains the English term for comparison with the research literature.",
    "rights": "© The Allostasis Project. All rights reserved. Reproduction or adaptation requires separate permission, subject to applicable legal exceptions.",
    "version": "0.3",
    "updatedAt": "2026-10-27",
    "editorial": {
      "contentType": "scientific-concept",
      "reviewState": "draft",
      "reviewedAt": null,
      "reviewedVersion": null,
      "updatedAt": "2026-10-27",
      "version": "0.3",
      "author": null,
      "reviewer": null,
      "workflow": {
        "ai": {
          "usage": "used",
          "system": "TAP Research Agent / OpenAI Codex",
          "scope": "Bilingual editorial revision and consolidation of scope statements based on the published text.",
          "version": "0.3",
          "tasks": [
            "Bilingual editing",
            "Scope and citation-position comparison"
          ]
        }
      },
      "revisions": [
        {
          "date": "2026-10-27",
          "version": "0.3",
          "description": "Refined definitions and reading guidance, specifying context and observation methods."
        },
        {
          "date": "2026-09-14",
          "version": "0.2",
          "description": "Added the distinction between contemporary homeostasis and allostasis, with a contrasting conceptual analysis."
        }
      ]
    },
    "sections": [
      {
        "id": "introduction",
        "title": "At a glance",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Maintaining stability through change.",
          "Allostasis describes adjustments that meet environmental demands and maintain functional stability. The Chinese edition uses an explanatory translation as a reading aid and retains the English term for comparison with the research literature.",
          "Whether a response is appropriate depends on the environment and the body's needs at that moment."
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "adjustment",
        "title": "Stability through adjustment",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Allostasis offers a way to understand changing regulation as demands change. Sterling's account emphasises anticipation and allocation of resources, rather than treating every change as a failure of regulation.[1]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "regulatory-mechanisms",
        "title": "What distinguishes a regulatory explanation?",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Modern homeostasis is not simply a picture of an unchanging body. Ramsay and Woods examine how multiple regulatory loops interact, and why changing a measured value alone does not settle whether a response should be called homeostatic or allostatic. Reading this alongside Sterling makes the conceptual distinction more precise.[3][1]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "cost",
        "title": "An adjustment and its cost are different questions",
        "paragraphs": [
          "Allostatic load concerns costs associated with repeated or prolonged adaptation. The adaptive process and its possible cumulative costs should be distinguished.[2]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "language",
        "title": "A note on language",
        "paragraphs": [
          "The Chinese edition uses an explanatory translation and retains Allostasis for reference to the original literature. When comparing authors, attend to how they define regulation, stability and anticipated demands."
        ]
      }
    ],
    "references": [
      {
        "id": "sterling-2012",
        "title": "Allostasis: a model of predictive regulation",
        "authors": "Peter Sterling",
        "journal": "Physiology & Behavior",
        "year": "2012",
        "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21684297/",
        "doi": "10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.06.004",
        "pmid": "21684297"
      },
      {
        "id": "mcewen-1993",
        "title": "Stress and the individual. Mechanisms leading to disease",
        "authors": "Bruce S. McEwen · Eliot Stellar",
        "journal": "Archives of Internal Medicine",
        "year": "1993",
        "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8379800/",
        "doi": "10.1001/archinte.1993.00410180039004",
        "pmid": "8379800"
      },
      {
        "id": "ramsay-2014",
        "title": "Clarifying the roles of homeostasis and allostasis in physiological regulation",
        "authors": "Ramsay DS · Woods SC",
        "journal": "Psychological review",
        "year": "2014",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035942",
        "doi": "10.1037/a0035942",
        "pmid": "24730599"
      }
    ]
  }
}