Dopamine in the CNS

Dopamine was initially regarded as a mere precursor of noradrenaline, but has progressively gained its present status of a common target for major drug classes and a substrate for some basic functions and dysfunctions of the Central Nervous System. The scientific interest has shifted from typically motor areas of the striatum to traditionally limbic ones as the nucleus accumbens and its afferent areas, the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampal formation and the basolateral amygdala. This double volume provides a systematic account of the anatomy, physiology, neurochemistry, molecular biology and behavioural pharmacology of dopamine in the CNS. - The first volume deals with the history of dopamine, the anatomy of dopamine neurons, the biochemistry and molecular biology of dopamine uptake sites and of dopamine receptors. TOC: Introduction: Birth of Dopamine (by Arvid Carlsson).- 1. Brain Dopamine - a Historical Perspective.- 2. Dopamine Neurons within the Organisation of the Forebrain.- 3. Synaptology of Dopamine Neurons.- 4. D1 Dopamine Receptors.- 5. Function of the Dopamine D2 Receptor: A Knockout Animal Approach.- 6. Dopamine D3 Receptor, Neuropsychiatric Disorders and their Treatments.- 7. Dopamine D4 Receptors: Molecular Biology and Pharmacology.- 8. Signal Transduction of Dopamine D1 Receptors.- 9. The Dopamine Transporter: Molecular Biology, Pharmacology and Genetics.- 10. Cellular Action of Dopamine.- 11. Dopamine and Gene Expression.