Central Regulation of the Pituitary-Adrenal Complex

This monograph gives an up-to-date account of the original results of the author''s research in the complex field of the central control over relationships which have become established in the course of evolution between the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. The author has limited the scope of this research on logical grounds to the study of central chemically reactive structures in the regulation of the adrenal glands through the intermediary of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal system. Through the author''s skill and expertise in the analysis of the extensive and sometimes complicated literature he has successfully undertaken a differential approach to the analysis of the concrete role of catecholamines, acetylcholine, and serotonin in relation to the endocrine system. The vast range of experimental investigations and results of clinical observations published in the last few decades have revealed the humoral neurosecretory factors of the hypothalamus as impor­ tant regulators of the princ ipal functions of the pituitary gland and, through it, of the cyclic activity of the peripheral group of endocrine glands. Until recently the region of the cascade of regulatory in­ fluences preceding the hypothalamus was terra incognita. It is for this reason that Evgenii Vladimirovich Naumenko''s monograph ac­ quires its special importance for the neurophysiologist, for its author has striven, by the use of experimental methods, to ascertain in detail the nature of influences which for a long time were in­ terpreted as the general dogmas of an abstract "nervism.