Evidence for the Existence of Central Monoamine Neurons: Mapping of Central Dopamine,noradrenaline and 5-hydroxytryptamine Neurons in the Central Nervous System with Transmitter Histochemistry

It is important to remember how immature the catecholamine field was in the beginning of the 1960 ies. At the CIBA Foundation Symposium on Adrenergic Mechanisms (London) in 1960 Prof. Gaddum stated: ?The meeting was in a critical mood and no one ventured to speculate on the relation between catecholamines and the brain" . It was therefore a major breakthrough in the monoamine field when it became possible in the 1960ies with the help of a highly sensitive and specific fluorescence method for the cellular demonstration of catecholamines and 5- hydroxytryptamine,the so called Falck-Hillarp technique , to directly demonstrate nerve cell systems in the CNS storing and forming dopamine,noradrenaline and 5-hydroxytryptamine, respectively. This book gives the early evidence from the work of Fuxe and Dahlström that formed Fuxe?s thesis in 1965 on the existence of central monoamine neurons. This fundamental work is of interest to preclinical and clinical neuroscienists world-wide in view of its impact on understanding communication in the brain and development of neuropsychiatric disease and its high relevance for neuropsychopharmacology and neuroendocrinology.