a highly coordinated fashion. These studies are at the focus of the present volume, which is an outcome of a symposium held at the University of Vermont College of Medicine on March 21-23, 1986, in conjunction with the seventeenth annual meeting of the Amer­ ican Society for Neurochemistry. The symposium has demonstrated clearly that the concerted efforts of investigators in neurophysiology, biochemis­ try, pharmacology, cell-biology, molecular genetics, neurology, and psy­ chiatry are required to achieve better understanding of the processes under­ lying neuronal responsiveness. This volume includes contributions provided by prominent investigators in all these research areas. We hope that the readers will find here a useful source of information and ideas for stimu­ lating further studies which may serve to narrow the gap between basic neuroscience research and its clinical implications.