ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the study of behavioral processes that regulate autonomic responding as the study of the "functional organization" of the autonomic nervous system. It provides an interpretative review of some research on the functional organization of two autonomic systems, the electrodermal and the cardiac. The chapter discusses experiments that compare the relationship of different autonomic responses to behavior provide much more information about functional organization than do experiments that consider each autonomic response separately. It shows that there appear to be important differences between the electrodermal and cardiac systems regarding the extent to which they are regulated by movement control processes and attentional or motivational mechanisms. Motivational theories of functional organization have many historical roots. Psychophysiologists have long believed that the activities of the autonomic nervous system are regulated to an important degree by neural processes that have specific functions in behavior.
