Homeostatic and Allostatic Principles for Behavioral Regulation in Desert Reptiles: A Robotic Evaluation

Abstract

Various recent studies have suggested homeostasis and allostasis as the explanatory fundamentals behind physiological and behavioral regulation. Both are endogenous processes responsible for stabilizing the internal states of organisms, in which allostasis orchestrates multiple homeostatic systems. We propose that allostasis can also help organisms adapt to unresolved fluctuations presented by an unstable environment without learning-based predictions. We upgraded a previous computational model of allostatic control by dynamically weighing the agents’ motivational drives based on both situational interoceptive and exteroceptive signals. Our model was integrated as the control system of a simulated robot capturing thermoregulation and foraging as navigation profiles. Our results supported the re-organization of hierarchically-ordered drives as an essential feature of need-dependent adaptation that enhances internal stability.