Catecholamines and Neurologic Diseases

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Abstract
(First of Two Parts)THE brains of human beings and other mammals contain relatively large quantities of two catecholamines, dopamine and norepinephrine, which are highly localized within the cell bodies, axons, and terminals of specific populations of neurons. The suggestion that brain catecholamines function as neurotransmitters mediating the transfer of information across synapses is based on the following: the presynaptic localization of these compounds1; the changes in bioelectric activity that follow their direct application to postsynaptic neurons2; the indirect evidence that they are released when the nerves storing them are stimulated3; and the behavioral and physiologic effects . . .