Nicotine is the major factor in the continuation of the smoking habit among humans. On December 2-4, 1985, under the sponsorship of the Tobacco and Health Research Institute in Lexington, Kentucky, leading scientists from around the world whose research efforts have focused on the role of nicotine in the tobacco habit participated in an International Symposium to provide the most comprehensive and ~xtensive coverage of this topic so far. The material discussed was in the forefront of man's...

The author is a space scientist of international reputation with a close and active relation with music (he studied organ with the late maestros Héctor Zeoli in Buenos Aires and Hans Jendis in Göttingen), who organized and directed the international workshops on the Neuropsychological Foundations of Music at the Carinthian Music Festivals in Ossiach, Austria. These workshops, held regularly between 1973 and 1985, have been credited as being the originators of the interdisciplinary approach...

This book provides a detailed overview of the current state of knowledge regarding the pathophysiology of both primary headaches – migraine, tension-type headache (TTH), and cluster headache – and the very important and frequent type of secondary headache, medication overuse headache (MOH). After an introductory chapter describing relevant neuroanatomy and vascular anatomy, the evidence gained from animal models regarding the pathophysiology of migraine and the other primary headaches is r...

This issue of Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience focuses on the neuropeptide orexin (hypocretin) and brings together scientists from around the world who will provide a timely discussion of how this peptide regulates behavior. This is a fast-moving field, and with the incorporation of novel technologies, new breakthroughs are likely to continue. For example, the use of optogenetic approaches has enabled the identification of the role of orexin-containing neurons in arousal ...

Deep Brain Stimulation: A New Frontier in Psychiatry provides an overview of current developments and the future possibilities of deep brain stimulation for patients with therapy-refractory psychiatric disorders. The side-by-side presentation of clinical applications and animal research provides a truly translational approach. Also included is a special chapter on the ethical issues involved in deep brain stimulation in psychiatry.Deep brain stimulation of selected brain a...

This book introduces undergraduate, postgraduate and research students and scientists to animal models of neurological disorders, along with their working principle and brief procedures. Addressing all the disorders related to the central nervous system (CNS) in a single platform, on the basis of various literature surveys it describes different procedures to induce a single disease with the help of toxins/chemicals. It also includes numerous protocols for inducing single neurological dise...

The role of the metals copper, zinc, magnesium, lead, manganese, mercury, lithium and aluminium in neuropsychiatric disease are well known and has been discussed on several occasions. Yet little attention has been paid to iron, the most abundant transitional metal in the body and the earth's crust. Iron plays a major role as a cofactor of numerous metabolic enzymes, it is important for DNA and protein synthesis, and has a crucial role in the oxygen carrying capacity of haemoglobin. Some of...

In 1984, we organized a two-day symposium on retinal degenerations as part of the biennial meeting of the VI International Society for Eye Research, held in Alicante, Spain. The success of this first meeting led to the second held, two years later in Sendai, Japan, organized as a satellite of the VII ISER. We were fortunate that these meetings began at a time of vigorous research activity in the area of retinal degenerations, thanks to the financial support of the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foun...

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors have played a key role in the advancement of knowledge of pharmacology and neurotransmission since the inception of studies in these fields, and the effects of naturally occurring drugs acting on muscarinic receptors were known and exploited for both therapeutic and non-therapeutic purposes for hundreds of years before the existence of the receptors themselves was recognized. This volume presents a broad yet detailed review of current knowledge of muscari...

The main purpose of the book is to provide insight into an area that humans often take for granted. There are wonderful and exciting stories of organisms using chemical signals as a basis of a sophisticated communication system. In many instances, chemical signals can provide more detailed and accurate information than any other mode of communication, yet this world is hidden from us because of our focus on visual and auditory signals. Although we have a diversity of senses available to us...

Primary sensory neurons respond to peripheral stimulation and project to the spinal cord. Specifically, the population of neurons which respond to damaging stimuli terminate in the superficial layers of the dorsal horn. Therefore, the dorsal horns constitute the first relay site for nociceptive fibre terminals which make synaptic contacts with second order neurons. It has recently become clear that the strength of this first pain synapse is plastic and modifiable by several modulators, inc...

Volume 5 of the series "Advances in Research on Neurodegeneration" is concerned with themes which are currently the focus of intensive research, and in which advances in our understanding of the pathological mechanisms un derlying neurodegenerative diseases are expected in the near future. The first section contains five reviews devoted to the various neuroimaging technolo gies. The discussion is concerned with the question of whether neuroimaging techniques make it possible to follow the ...