ESMR: a process framework for calibration dynamics across psychosomatic and psychiatric phenomena

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience and Computational Psychiatry
• Cognitive Science
• Psychology

Background:

• The brain functions as a generative system predicting input and minimizing mismatch.
• Stress is viewed as persistent mismatch without adequate recalibration.
• Health is defined by the capacity for recalibration, while psychopathology reflects its failure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose the Embodied, Salience, Metacognitive, and Reality-grounding (ESMR) framework.
• To compare psychosomatic, psychiatric, and psychosis phenomena via shared recalibration failures.
• To offer a novel perspective on health and psychopathology beyond a single disease continuum.

Main Methods:

• The ESMR framework details a four-layer, two-timescale process (Embodied Constraints, Salience Calibration, Metacognitive Model Revision, Reality-Grounding Interface).
• It distinguishes between learning and development, with development altering recalibration architecture.
• Key distinctions are made between metacognitive updating (M) and reality adoption (R).

Main Results:

• The framework predicts layer-specific cross-signatures of recalibration failure, not a generalized burden.
• It outlines an empirical program using framing, disconfirmation, reality-grounding, and embodied/interoceptive tasks.
• ESMR provides a clinically oriented intermediate framework for research.

Conclusions:

• ESMR offers a new model for understanding stress, health, and psychopathology through the lens of recalibration.
• It emphasizes distinct failure mechanisms across different mental health conditions.
• The framework facilitates comparative analysis and targeted empirical investigation.