Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Illustration credits
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Classification of chemical messengers
- 2 The endocrine glands and their hormones
- 3 The pituitary gland and its hormones
- 4 The hypothalamic hormones
- 5 Neurotransmitters
- 6 Neurotransmitter control of hypothalamic, pituitary and other hormones
- 7 Regulation of hormone synthesis, storage, release, transport and deactivation
- 8 Regulation of hormone levels in the bloodstream
- 9 Steroid and thyroid hormone receptors
- 10 Receptors for peptide hormones, neuropeptides and neurotransmitters
- 11 Neuropeptides I: classification, synthesis and colocalization with classical neurotransmitters
- 12 Neuropeptides II: neuropeptide function
- 13 Cytokines and the interaction between the neuroendocrine and immune systems
- 14 Methods for the study of behavioral neuroendocrinology
- 15 An overview of behavioral neuroendocrinology: present, future and past
- Appendix Journals in endocrinology, neuroendocrinology, psychoneuroimmunology and behavioral endocrinology
- Index
1 - Classification of chemical messengers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Illustration credits
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Classification of chemical messengers
- 2 The endocrine glands and their hormones
- 3 The pituitary gland and its hormones
- 4 The hypothalamic hormones
- 5 Neurotransmitters
- 6 Neurotransmitter control of hypothalamic, pituitary and other hormones
- 7 Regulation of hormone synthesis, storage, release, transport and deactivation
- 8 Regulation of hormone levels in the bloodstream
- 9 Steroid and thyroid hormone receptors
- 10 Receptors for peptide hormones, neuropeptides and neurotransmitters
- 11 Neuropeptides I: classification, synthesis and colocalization with classical neurotransmitters
- 12 Neuropeptides II: neuropeptide function
- 13 Cytokines and the interaction between the neuroendocrine and immune systems
- 14 Methods for the study of behavioral neuroendocrinology
- 15 An overview of behavioral neuroendocrinology: present, future and past
- Appendix Journals in endocrinology, neuroendocrinology, psychoneuroimmunology and behavioral endocrinology
- Index
Summary
HORMONES, THE BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR
Research on hormones and the brain covers many fields: from cell biology and genetics to anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, medicine and psychology. This book will examine the interactions between hormones, the brain and behavior. The main focus will be on how the endocrine and nervous systems form an integrated functional neuroendocrine system which influences physiological and behavioral responses.
When you hear the term ‘hormone’, you think of the endocrine glands and how their secretions influence physiological responses in the body. That is, however, merely the beginning of the picture. Many of the endocrine glands (although not all of them) are influenced by the pituitary gland, the so-called ‘master gland’, and the pituitary is itself controlled by various hormones from the hypothalamus, a part of the brain lying above the pituitary gland. The release of hypothalamic hormones is, in turn, regulated by neurotransmitters released from nerve cells in the brain. Neurotransmitters also control behavior and the release of neurotransmitters from certain nerve cells is modulated by the level of specific hormones in the circulation. Thus, neurotransmitter release influences both hormones and behavior and hormones influence the release of neurotransmitters. This interaction between hormones, the brain and behavior involves a wide variety of chemical messengers, which are described in this chapter.
This chapter provides an introduction to the chemical messengers found in the neuroendocrine system. Later chapters describe the endocrine glands and their hormones (Chapter 2), the pituitary gland and its hormones (Chapter 3) and the regulation of the pituitary gland by the hypothalamic hormones (Chapter 4).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Introduction to Neuroendocrinology , pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994