Table 2 Parallels within models of biological and behavioral immune systems.
From: An adaptive behavioral immune system: a model of population health behavior
General function | General responsibility | Specific functions | Definition of specific function | Evidence in the biological immune system | Evidence in the adaptive behavioral immune system |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Precision | The functions that prioritize and organize rhythms or variations that sustain health in future environments | Detection | The cost-benefit analyses that set a point of reference from which to reliably change functioning | Detection and pattern recognition functions performed by toll-like receptors | The weighting of pros/cons in TTM’s Decisional Balance |
Direction | The sequencing of events within the system that support movement (from a detected point of reference) towards a future state of healthy functioning | A coordination of immune events following the detection of an antigen; A coordination of immune events following the detection of self-antigens in autoimmune patients; | The sequencing of behavior change events to create movement through TTM’s five Stages of Change | ||
Selection | The conditioning of precise responses that readily replace dysfunctional conditions with functional conditions (to maintain direction). | The functioning of enzymes and antibodies to tag, neutralize, and remove pathogens | The use of TTM’s Processes of Change to tag, neutralize, and replace bad habits | ||
Variation | The functions that express the “varied-abilities” that evidence health in presently changing environment | (to be addressed in future work) | The human microbiota: the systemic colonies of microorganisms that continuously vary to sustain life of the biological tissue | Breathing, drinking, eating, and moving: the habitual life functions that continuously vary to sustain life in the human body | |
