Autonomic Disorders and FND

Functional neurological disorders (FNDs) are neurological conditions resulting from altered brain network activity causing physical symptoms that are genuine but not explained by structural changes in the brain. FND results from abnormal connectivity in the limbic system and overlapping circuitry dysfunction in salience networks. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) refers to the part of the nervous system devoted to unconscious processes, the viscera and homeostasis. The ANS has afferent pathways, central nuclei and networks, and efferent pathways. Since unconscious neural processing and automatic behaviors are under the purview of the ANS, there is great interest in understanding the role of abnormal ANS activity in FND. To date, the overlap between ANS dysfunction and FND has been relatively underexplored. Here, we discuss the role of the ANS in FND and the overlap between autonomic dysfunction and FND.