Chemical Approaches to Brain Function

Neurosciences Research, Volume 5: Chemical Approaches to Brain Function is an eight-chapter text that discusses the advances in the techniques used to examine the development, control, and function of neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. The opening chapter deals with the use of organ culture to investigate the processes of axonal growth of adrenergic neurons, the control of synthesis of norepinephrine, and its release on new axonal sprouts. These topics are followed by a presentation of the development of adrenergic neurons in the central nervous system. The next three chapters consider the function of central adrenergic neurons; the use of 6-hydroxydopamine and catecholamine fluorescence; and the effects of L-dopa on protein synthesis. The discussion then shifts to the catecholamines in the central nervous system to aggressive behavior and the amino acids as neurotransmitters. The concluding chapter focuses on the cholinergic transmission in describing some neurophysiological and neurochemical correlates of behavior. Neuroscientists and neuroresearchers will find this book invaluable.