Synopsis
The editor of these volumes has asked me to contribute a brief foreword. When I accepted this honor I suddenly became aware of the enormous progress that has taken place in this field in the 50 years since I began as a medical student, in a humble way, to take interest in the catecholamine system. At about that time some evidence was forthcoming to the effect that catecholamines were an important factor in eliciting emotional reactions, thus secondarily influencing behavior. The great physiologist Walter B. Cannon showed in his classic experiments that when a cat was exposed to a dog it responded not only with overt signs of aversion and dislike, but also with an increased flow of adrenaline from its adrenals. The relationships between catecholamines and behavior have since then become the subject of intense research by physiologists, pharmacologists, and psychologists. Infu- sion of adrenaline in man was shown to provoke a typical pattern of emo- tional and behavioral changes. The development of more convenient methods for the measurement of catecholamines in blood and urine led to important new findings. A close association between emotional stress and catecholamine release could be es- tablished. This was further extended to psychiatric disorders in which characteristic disturbances in catecholamine release patterns were described.
Présentation de l'éditeur
Extensive discoveries have been made about the roles of the neurotransmitter substances noradrenaline and dopamine in human beings as well as in experimental animals. The book starts with a description of the anatomy of the catecholamine pathways of the brain and a summary of the pharmacological manipulations available for studying them. Stephen Mason's main concerns, however, are with the studies of the part played by these brain systems in motor behaviour, learning and reward mechanisms, and cognitive and vegetative behaviour. Finally, he deals with the catecholamines in human clinical psychopathology. Throughout, the book details the experiments from which conclusions are drawn in such a way as to illuminate the process of scientific discovery for students, and to highlight the limitations and the gaps in our present knowledge. There are many illustrations, and commonly used behavioural paradigms and terminology are explained in an appendix. Included are over 1200 references to the original research literature. The book will thus be of particular interest to students in brain and behaviour courses, in psychology, physiology, pharmacology and a wide range of neurosciences, and to their teachers. It will also be valuable to research workers as the most comprehensive and detailed summary of the present state of knowledge in this fascinating research area.
Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
