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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2026 Mar 22.
Published in final edited form as: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2025 Oct 13;179:106419. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106419

Table 3.

Hypotheses of the allostatic triage model of psychopathology (ATP Model).

H1. Preexisting peripheral (AL) and/or CNS metabolic inefficiency (MAL), and increases in biological energy demand such as acute inflammation will increase the experience of negative affect during stress
H2. Affect will closely represent biological metabolic efficiency in healthy organisms, likely within the biological systems and CNS networks implicated in expected future behaviors
H3. Allostatic Triage: when stress-induced energy demand exceeds the energy production capacity of the CNS, energy will be triaged to the least expensive regions and networks expected to ensure short-term survival, and away from more expensive regions and networks that may produce better long-term outcomes
H4. Affect-Driven Prioritization: Affective intensity predicts the degree of stress-induced triage of CNS network functional connectivity (e.g., highly negatively valanced states will produce greater triage compared to less negatively valanced states)
H5. In psychopathology and chronic disease states, affect will become less associated with biological metabolic efficiency (reduced allostatic metabolic inefficiency), but will continue to predict allostatic triage in the CNS
H6. Triage-Driven Canalization: Persistent allostatic triage from one network or circuit to another will predict the persistent changes in CNS functional connectivity that develop over time in the process of psychopathogenesis (i.e., allostatic triage predicts which networks are canalized)

AL: Allostatic Load, CNS: Central Nervous System, MAL: Mitochondrial Allostatic Load.