Human Restoration Theory: Pain, Protection, and Restoration-Relevant Change v0.1

Pain, Protection, and Restoration-Relevant Change v0.1 is the fifth and final paper in the initial Human Restoration Theory (HRT) Bridge Papers series.

It treats pain as a personal sensory and emotional experience, and protection as a context-dependent set of observable behaviors and states. The paper defines how pain report, pain interference, threat, expectation, safety, task behavior, and functional outcome must be distinguished when interpreting candidate HRT relations.

The paper establishes that pain change is meaningful in its own right but is not, by itself, evidence of structural change or restoration. Restoration-relevant claims require retained and transferable functional evidence under matched task demand, alongside explicit reporting of pain, cost, and state.

It does not diagnose pain mechanisms or pathology, infer tissue state from pain or behavior, prescribe treatment, or claim that pain reduction validates HRT.