Allostasis is a term referring to an organism’s physiological and behavioural reactions to stressors. The concept of allostasis was coined by Sterling and Eyer in 1988, who proposed that the notion of homeostasis (error-correction by feedback) is insufficient in terms of serving as the primary regulatory mechanism in biological systems. In the allostasis model, a predictive element is added, in which learned aspects of a situation are combined with sense data, ensuring a preemptive, and thereby more efficient response to stressors.

Source:

Sterling P. (2011) Allostasis: A model of predictive regulation, Physiol Behav, doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.06.004