Abstract
SEVERAL chemical substances are involved in synaptic transmission in the mammalian central nervous system1–3. The Falck-Hillarp technique4 has demonstrated noradrenaline, dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine within nerve cell bodies and terminals5,6 and the belief that these amines act as neurohumours is strengthened by observations that nerve fibre activation leads to their release from the terminals7,8. Histo-chemical evidence suggests that discrete systems of neurones can be identified by their content of particular amines, and it seems possible that such neurohumorally homogeneous systems have a functional as well as a chemical identity. Before the anatomical distribution of amine-containing neurones had been described, Brodie and Shore9 proposed that noradrenaline functions as the central neurohumour of the sympathetic and 5-hydroxytryptamine of the parasympathetic system. This suggestion has not been supported by anatomical evidence; the amine-containing neurones form systems of small diameter fibres of very diffuse terminal distribution, which do not correspond to recognized ascending or descending pathways5,6, although amine-containing neurones in invertebrates have been identified as sensory systems10.
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CROW, T., ARBUTHNOTT, G. Function of Catecholamine-containing Neurones in Mammalian Central Nervous System. Nature New Biology 238, 245–246 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio238245a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio238245a0
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