Emotional Adaptation Theory: A Three-Layer Theoretical Framework with Dynamic Balance as the Ideal Standard
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: A persistent puzzle in emotion regulation research is why interventions often fail despite following established protocols. This work began with that puzzle and gradually converged on a reconceptualization: emotion understood not as an epiphenomenon of prediction error, but as a dual-system adaptive command. The paper argues for Emotional Adaptation Theory, which rests on three interconnected claims: adaptation constitutes the functional goal, command serves as the operational mechanism, and dynamic balance—rather than static calmness—provides the elusive ideal standard that much existing literature has overlooked. The framework distinguishes between sympathetic-dominant and parasympathetic-dominant emotions, proposes the θ coefficient (θ ≈ 0.5) as a quantitative index of dynamic alternation, and integrates a dual-loop mechanism (feedforward and feedback adaptation), an interoception reuse mechanism, a six-dimensional capacity assessment model, and formal tools including an expected free energy formulation and an emotion intensity model. The work revises five limitations in the predictive coding account of emotion: the fast pathway is triggered directly by specific stimuli, uncertainty modulates only the slow pathway, emotional commands and subjective experience operate at distinct layers, and cognition-emotion-behavior forms a nested loop. Four falsifiable predictions are proposed, concerning discrete physiological pattern clusters, execution inertia of emotional commands, modulation effects of body-based interventions, and intensity superposition of synergistic emotions. Verification protocols using the DEAP and SEED databases are outlined. The framework offers a unified perspective on cognitive reappraisal, psychosomatic disorders, emotional inertia, and despair tension. It suggests a three-dimensional intervention approach—cognitive correction, body remodeling, and restoration of the ideal standard—for emotional disorders. The core architecture, including the dual-system command, the θ standard, interoception reuse, and the dual-loop mechanism, may also inform the design of artificial affective systems.
Author: Cao, Zheyu
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7155083763