Central and peripheral nervous system interactions: From mind to brain to body

The hierarchical organization of the nervous system allows for the control of peripheral functions such as sweating and glucocorticoid release to be under the exquisite control of the brain. These peripheral responses, in turn, regulate themselves through interactions at various levels of the brain. The nature of these interactions, and how they coalesce to influence, guide, and change higher-order functions such as attention and emotion, is the topic of the ten reports presented in this special issue of the International Journal of Psychophysiology. Using a variety of techniques, these reports demonstrate the state of the science of mind–body interactions, and they also showcase the prominent role that psychophysiological measurements continue to play in understanding these interactions.