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 second volume deals with functional and behavioural aspects as the electrophysiology of dopamine neurons and of dopamine actions, the interaction with other transmitters and its role in behaviour and in the action of centrally acting drugs.
