Convergence of clinical, empirical, methodological and theoretical approaches aimed at understanding the relation between brain function and cognition, is by now standard in most if not all academic programs in the area of Cognitive Science. This confederation of disciplines is one of the liveliest domains of inquiry and discussion into some of the most fundamental -and historically resilient- questions human beings have posed themselves. The contributions gathered in this special issue of Biological Research, directly inspired by the ongoing work at the Instituto de Sistemas Complejos de Valparaiso and the December 2006 CONICYT-INSERM-SFI workshop "Networks in Cognitive Systems / Trends and Challenge in Biomedicine: From Cerebral Process to Mathematical Tools Design", Chile, represent an explicit invitation to the reader to dive deeper into this fascinating terrain