Allostasis is the much older and fundamental life function. Memory doesn’t have much meaning without an associated sense of awareness and is meaningful only with the higher animals. Allostasis can occur without any sense of awareness and can be demonstrated in the most primitive forms of life. We can expect memory to have a significant effect on behaviour and through the behaviour (including thinking) an effect on the hormonal responses to stress. Allostasis on the other hand has no direct effect on behaviour and can certainly occur without involving memory. The distinction is very important since PTSD is seen by some as a disturbance of memory and alternatively can be seen as due to allostatic overload. The primary cause has to be one or the other and allostatic overload has to have prior claim. Memory and awareness may have a moderating effect providing the stress is not too great - but how far can it override this much older and more fundamental reaction?
Memory medicine and the optogenetics method may be useful for explaining the questions.
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