Emotion is an integrated response involving subjective feelings such as joy, fear, and anxiety, accompanied by physiological reactions and behavioral changes. Proper regulation of emotion and the resulting decision-making processes are crucial for adapting to environment changes, and thus critical for survival. The brain plays a central role in this regulation by integrating external sensory information, internal bodily states, and past memories. Recent scientific advances have begun to elucidate how the interaction between the brain and the gastrointestinal system fundamentally contributes to emotion regulation.
Neural circuits linking the brain and visceral organs are evolutionarily conserved across vertebrate species. Signals from visceral organs (e.g., the heart and gut) are transmitted to emotion-related brain regions via the vagus nerve and brainstem. These signals converge in higher-order brain centers, such as the prefrontal and insular cortices, which integrate interoceptive, exteroceptive, and mnemonic inputs to support adaptive behaviors based on the emotion regulation. Furthermore, as expected from anatomical observations, this interaction is bidirectional, and recent studies have begun to elucidate how the precise interplay between ascending and descending pathways contributes to emotion regulation, including stress resilience.
In this Research Topic, we aim to highlight recent advances in our understanding of brain–body interactions in emotion regulation. Despite significant progress in identifying the roles of individual brain regions and visceral organs, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. For example, a long-standing question—how emotions are generated in terms of their spatiotemporal dynamics, including whether emotional processes originate in the brain, the body, or through their coordinated interaction—remains unresolved after more than a century of debate. This Research Topic addresses the neural mechanisms of brain–body communication via both neuronal and humoral pathways. While grounded in basic science, it also includes research with medical relevance, particularly studies that enhance our understanding of brain–body interactions in health and disease.
By compiling both original research articles and comprehensive reviews, we aim to present not only the current state of the field but also forward-looking perspectives that may help elucidate the system-wide, dynamic mechanisms underlying the generation and regulation of emotional states across the brain and body.
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Article types
This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:
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