The explosive accumulation of new knowledge in the biological sciences in the last decades has advanced our understanding of the basic mechanisms that underlie most biological phenomena. These advances, however, have not been uniform but have varied considerably among the different biological problems. In some cases, e.g., biochemical genetics, radical advances have been made which have changed our ideas and our approaches. In other cases, even with work which has yielded much detailed new knowledge, our under- standing of basic mechanisms remains very inadequate. Among the lines of work that...

Few can deny the paramount importance of the neurosciences, undoubtedly one of the most challenging fields in contemporary science. Recent years have witnessed the awakening of interest in brain research by many dis- tinguished investigators from other branches of science, which has made possible the multidisciplinary approach needed for the complex problems of this field. The present book, which deals with one aspect of this research, is the result of the symposium held under the auspices of the New York State Research Institute for Neurochemistry and Drug Addiction in April 1968. It has...

Anyone who has any contact with mental patients, old or young, or their families, or just visits a mental hospital or school for the retarded, is aware of the tremendous suffering caused by malfunctioning of the brain. The func- tion of no other organ is so crucial for our everyday life, our proper func- tioning, indeed our happiness, and no other illness causes as much anguish to patients or their families as mental illness. It is surprising and sad, therefore, how little effort has been devoted to research in this area; more so because such research is the only hope to ameliorate this...

The second volume of the Handbook does not parallel any volume of the first edition; it is one more sign, or reflection, of the expansion of the field. By emphasizing the experimental approach, it illustrates the tools that have re- cently become available for investigating the nervous system. Also, perhaps even more than other volumes, it illustrates the multidisciplinary nature of the field, requiring multidisciplinary methodology. It is now recognized that the availability of methodology is often the rate-limiting determinant of studies and that improvements or innovations in...

This volume is concerned with metabolic reactions occurring in the nervous system. Some time ago, it was thought that since most of the intermediary metabolism that can be observed in the brain is not specific to this organ, there is little justification in studying neural metabolism as such. Later it was realized that for an understanding of neural functions, the understanding of metabolism in the brain and its alterations is essential. All aspects of the metabolism of a substrate in brain, or all metabolic reactions of the nervous system, could not be included in this volume; some will be...

A major advance in the biological sciences in the past decade has been the biochemical identification of cell membrane receptors. The existence of re- ceptor substances on the surface of cells that recognize and bind to extracellular molecules was proposed at the beginning of the century by the pharmacologist and immunologist Paul Ehrlich and the physiologist J. N. Langley. Since then, receptors have been found to play an important role in numerous physiological and pathological processes. Over the years many attempts have been made to physically isolate and chemically characterize receptors,...

Neurochemistry, having the objective of elucidating biochemical processes subserving nervous activity, emerged as an application of chemistry to the of neurobiological problems as a post-World War II phenomenon. investigation However, only in the last 40 years has the chemical community recognized neurochemistry as a distinct, if hybrid, discipline. During this period great strides have been made. However, recently neurochemistry, along with neu- rophysiology, neuropharmacology, neuroanatomy, and the behavioral sci- ences, has emerged to form neuroscience, a new community of scientists with...

The content of Volume 8 of the Handbook of Neurochemistry is a perfect example and sample of what occupies neurochemists in the late 1980s. What occupies them are questions, concepts, and technology that either did not start with the nervous system, or rapidly moved out of its exclusivity (see, for in- stance, chapters on neurotensin, beta-lipotropin, behavioral and neurochemical effects of ACTH, cholecystokinin, etc.). Thus, the neurochemist is more and more seen as a biochemist occupied by questions, concepts, and technology that are not unique to the nervous system, even though the...

After the completion of the first edition of this series, this editor thought that a new edition would not be warranted in less than IS, perhaps 20, years, but it seems that we live in a time in which rapid changes are the norm and findings in a field such as neurochemistry develop exponentially. The task of a future editor attempting to get a comprehensive neurochemical handbook for the year 2000 would be even less enviable, but by then information processing may be very different. The approach, the design, and the areas covered by each volume and each chapter are necessarily arbitrary, and...

In neurosciences one may say, '"All roads lead to Rome. " It seems as though wherever one starts, the course of investigation leads to the same major ques- tions about nervous system function and dysfunction. In thinking about what to write in this preface, it occurred to me that it might be best to deal with that with which I am most familiar and to trace to some extent my own '"road to Rome. '' As I look over my work of the last 37 years, it becomes clear to me that it can be epitomized as a search for patterns. What usually began as a single- minded devotion to in-depth analysis of one or...