Cross-Scale Energy Coordination in Brain–Body Systems Supports Cognitive Function Across the Lifespan

Cognitive vulnerability is commonly attributed to the cumulative impact of stressors across the lifespan, such as chronic stress and sleep disruption, which are thought to contribute to neural dysfunction. However, it remains unclear whether—and how—computational processes within the brain, and their interactions with the body, influence metabolic homeostasis and thereby shape cognitive stability. In particular, the role of cross-scale energetic coordination between neural dynamics and peripheral physiology is poorly understood.Here, we present a proof-of-concept in silico framework to investigate how predictive neural dynamics and metabolic regulation jointly constrain cognition in distributed brain–body systems. Using whole-brain dynamical simulations with bidirectional coupling between neural activity, autonomic physiology, and energy metabolism, we introduce Brain–Body Coherence, a model-derived metric quantifying the alignment between neural metastability and autonomic–metabolic variability.Across large synthetic cohorts, Brain–Body Coherence was associated with variation in a proxy measure of cognitive energy, and showed stronger explanatory power than null models and global network metrics within the simulated system. Mediation analyses suggested that energy efficiency partially accounts for these associations, indicating a candidate mechanistic pathway linking brain–body coordination to cognitive-like outcomes.Lifespan-oriented simulations revealed temporally dissociated regimes, with dynamics consistent with Active Inference dominating in early adulthood, and energy-regulatory processes becoming more prominent in later stages. Importantly, these findings arise from a fully simulated environment and are intended to generate testable hypotheses rather than directly model empirical cognition. Overall, this work introduces a theoretical and computational framework in which cognitive vulnerability emerges from the alignment between brain and body under energetic and metastable constraints. This approach provides a foundation for future empirical studies integrating neural dynamics, peripheral physiology, and metabolism across the lifespan.