Sentence:  In view of the important role which emotional disturbances play in the genesis of neurotic and psychotic disorders and the parallelism observed between autonomic <WSD>states</WSD> and psychological behavior in several instances , it is further suggested that a hypothalamic imbalance may play an important role in initiating mental changes . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the way something is with respect to its main attributes