The description of sequelae of nutritional deficien- cies was equally oversimplified. Obviously, a disease like rickets, which affected hard tissues--the skeleton-- had irreversible consequences. Destruction or alteration of tissues, such as in cancrum oris or severe xerophthal- mia, was equally permanent and easily observed. Other models were beriberi or scurvy, where, by contrast, the vitamin treatment seemed to restore the individual to the completely normal status quo ante. Most nutritionists were therefore little prepared intellectually for the series of suggestive findings con- cerning...

In a recent book Arthur Koestler describes very cynically the superfluity of scientific meetings. He lists the various gatherings that are going to take place in one brief summer season in the Kon- gresshaus of a small Swiss village, ending the long list with three interdisciplinary symposia, titles of which contain the three words "Environment," "Pollution," and "Future" in three different permu- tations. By the same token, Koestler could list endlessly meetings on sensory physiology and behaviour or their synonyms, which have taken place allover the world on the national or international...

As one who has gone down the wayward path from "pure" organic chemistry to biochemistry to pharmacology, I was not quite prepared to go all the way - into the field of discriminable stimuli. The organizer of the symposium on discriminable stimuli induced by drugs, Dr. Harbans Lal, did seduce me into attending. Having lost my behavioral virginity, I now stare with open eyes at the field. One item in particular at this meeting exemplifies to me the power of such techniques. Dr. Albert Weissman mentioned the problem he tackled with getting rats to discriminate between saline and dilute solutions...

This volume represents a collection of papers which were contributed by participants at a Symposium for Cholinergic Mechanisms and Psycho- pharmacology, held in La Jolla, California on March 28-30, 1977. The were chosen to emphasize areas in which there has been substantial topics progress in the past 2-3 years and fall into seven major groups dealingwith: cholinergiC receptors; chemistry, histochemistry and enzymology; cyclic nucleotides and cholinergiC mechanisms; storage, compartmentation and release of acetylcholine; regulatory mechanisms in acetylcholine metab- olism; modulation of...

This book is the result of the contributions presented at a conference held from August 30 to September 1, 1984 at the Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. This meeting was organized under the joint auspices of the European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS) and the Societe Fran aise pour 1 'Etude du Comportement Animal (SFECA). The objective of this meeting was to bring together an international group of participants to evaluate and to report on recent research in three broad and overlapping fields within the general theme of the relationships between brain plasticity and learning...

Alzheimer's disease afflicts up to 1 in 5 people over the age of 65 years and causes untold suffering of the patient and their family. The cause of this disease is unknown; indeed, evidence increasingly suggests that there may be multiple Alzheimer-type syndromes with different etiologies, analogous to different types of psychosis. Currently there are no means to prevent the disease, slow its progress or reverse its neurodegenerative consequences. With few exceptions, clinical trials of a variety of compounds have resulted in patient responses that are disappointing with respect to both the...

This volume represents the proceedings of a Symposium on Psychopharmacology and the Aging Patient, held at Duke University, May 29-31, 1972. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and the Department of Psychiatry at Duke. This Symposium was the first in a series of conferences which will be devoted variously to preclinical and clinical pharmacology of the different groups of psychotropic drugs, especially as they relate to the problems of the elderly patient and to the special considerations that must be given in theory and in practice...

Every three years early Spring witnesses the convening of a small group of neuroscientists from many parts of the world. They are devoted to the study of acetylcholine, the oldest of the known neurotransmitters. To assess the level of knowledge, to take stock of the still unsolved problems, to evaluate the practical meaning of their findings, the cholinologists first met in 1969 in the eerie atmosphere of a snow-covered Swedish forest, the second in the Swiss Alps, the third facing the surf and foam of the Paci- fic waves. Finally in March 1980 Florence, her trees burgeoning in the mild rain...

This volume had its inception at a symposium entitled Aneura1 Organisms: Their Significance for Neurobiology held at the Winter Conference on Brain Research in Vail, Colorado, in January, 1972. The original participants were Drs. Epstein, Hamilton, Kung, Wood and myself. However, since that time several other authors (Drs. Applewhite, Chen, Diehn and Ettienne) were asked to contri- bute papers and all were asked to update their presentations so as to present a broad perspective as to the role and significance of aneura1 systems for investigating neurobiological problems. This volume is the...