Fujiwara, Mana, Naoki, Honda · Neuroscience research · 2026 · DOI
Your body naturally tries to keep things like temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar steady through a process called homeostasis. This study created a computer model showing how your body learns to anticipate and prepare for challenges based on past experience—like how you might shiver before getting cold. The model also shows how problems can cascade through your body when different systems share the same control signals, which may help explain why ME/CFS patients often experience multiple symptoms affecting different body systems at the same time.
ME/CFS is characterized by widespread multi-system dysregulation affecting temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and energy metabolism simultaneously. This computational model provides a mechanistic framework for understanding how shared control pathways can lead to cascading failures across multiple organ systems, potentially explaining why ME/CFS patients often experience interconnected symptoms and why treating one symptom may inadvertently worsen another.
This is a theoretical computational model tested primarily on single-variable thermoregulation and not yet validated in actual ME/CFS patients. The study does not prove that this mechanism is the cause of ME/CFS, nor does it demonstrate that interventions based on this model would effectively treat the condition. Human physiology is vastly more complex than the model, and additional empirical work is needed to confirm whether these mechanisms operate in ME/CFS patients.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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Primary citation
Fujiwara, Mana & Naoki, Honda (2026). Gradual proactive regulation of body state by reinforcement learning of homeostasis.. Neuroscience research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neures.2026.105021
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-fujiwara-2026-gradual-proactive,
author = {Fujiwara, Mana and Naoki, Honda},
title = {Gradual proactive regulation of body state by reinforcement learning of homeostasis.},
journal = {Neuroscience research},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1016/j.neures.2026.105021},
note = {PubMed: 41513000},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/fujiwara-2026-gradual-proactive},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/fujiwara-2026-gradual-proactive
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