The Bioenergetic Map of Social Connection: Redefining Attachment through Allostasis and Predictive Efficiency

Not too long ago, I wrote the first post of my attachment insights series. In this series, I aim at providing examples of the most prevalent discussions surrounding attachment theory and science as well as the most accurate and up-to-date explanations.

This time, in my thirty-sixth and most recent post, I would like to propose a novel social neuroscience account of attachment by diving deeper into the concepts of allostasis and predictive processing.

Summary
A converging body of recent empirical and theoretical work (see Scientific References at the bottom of this post) identifies our brain’s primary function as the anticipation of our body’s and mind’s needs. In other words, our brain’s central task is to be ideally prepared to meet future demands before they arise. This active and predictive regulatory process is also known as allostasis, a process that ensures ‘stability through change’.

Being an integral part of allostasis, attachment can be redefined as a fundamental bioregulatory system that manages our ‘metabolic capital’ by modelling the availability of social resources for co-regulation.

But what does this mean in detail, and how does an optimal combination of allostasis and attachment give rise to resiliency? Let’s have a closer look!

Click on the link below to read the entire post on Substack.

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