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Three biological systems of relevance to health psychology are the nervous system (NS), the endocrine system (ES) and the immune system (IS). These three systems communicate within the body using electrical and chemical signals. They activate and de-activate tissues, organs and muscles to control and regulate the body, the emotions and the mind. The principal objective of the three systems is to preserve homeostasis. The three systems and their relationships to the brain and behaviour are illustrated in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1 The nervous system (NS), endocrine system (ES) and immune system (IS) and their relationships to brain and behaviour

Constant reciprocated interaction between the three systems – the brain, organs and gut – is required to enable the control and coordination of behaviour. Endocrine substances directly affect the nervous and immune systems. The NS innervates every organ and tissue of the IS with reciprocal connections. The continuous interactions among the nervous, endocrine and immune systems was named ‘neuroimmunomodulation’ by Spector and Korneva (1981). Other related terms for these interactions include ‘psychoimmunology’, ‘psychoneuroimmunology’ (Kiecolt-Glaser and Glaser, 1992), ‘immunoendocrinology’, ‘behavioural immunology’ and ‘mind and immunology’. We review research on psychoneuroimmunology later in the chapter.

The three biological systems provide an essential foundation for the understanding of health and illness. Interest in the NS, however, is more than an academic one; it is also economic. The burden on health care and the economy from neurological disease is massive and rapidly increasing. For example, in the USA nearly 100 million people are ill with neurological disease. The combined annual costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, low back pain, stroke, traumatic brain injury, migraine, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and Parkinson’s disease totals nearly $800 billion, and this figure is rapidly rising due to the ageing population (Gooch et al., 2017). This huge sum suggests a pressing need to expand knowledge and training in neuroscience. One necessary step is to begin with a basic grounding in the nature and function of the NS, a foundation stone for everything that follows.