Psycho-biological adaptive dynamics in aging populations

Abstract

The dynamics of self-organized systems are characterized by irreversible processes in which the exchange of matter, energy and signals among genetic, metabolic and environmental patterns are nonlinear; reversible events (i.e., at equilibrium) occur only in special cases. The adaptations of complex systems to the environment, at all levels of structural organization, involve boundaries of stability and dynamics of transition among stabilities; in this view, the classical concept of homeostasis refers only to the observed meta-stable status, reached, generally described by means and standard deviations, with the exclusion of three basic aspects of natural processes: (i) the prior evolutive dynamics, (ii) the coexistence of other meta-stable statuses and (iii) the role of the fluctuation as regards the successive evolution of the system. Some qualitative models to approach research on aging are discussed on the basis of nonlinear system theory.