Serotonin and Its Role in Behavior and Mood

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, often cited as 5-HT) is one of the major excitatory neurotransmitters, and the serotonergic system is one of the best studied and understood transmitter systems. It is crucially involved in the organization of virtually all behaviors and in the regulation of emotion and mood. Alterations in the serotonergic system, induced by e.g. learning or pathological processes, underlie behavioral plasticity and changes in mood, which can finally result in abnormal behavior and psychiatric conditions.

Not surprisingly, the serotonergic system and its functional components appear to be targets for a multitude of pharmacological treatments — examples of very successful drugs targeting the serotonergic system include Prozac and Zoloft. The last decades of research have not only fundamentally expanded our view on serotonin but also revealed in much more detail an astonishing complexity of this system, which comprises a multitude of receptors and signaling pathways.

A detailed view on its role in basal, but also complex, behaviors emerged, and was presented in a number of review articles. Although much is known now, the serotonergic system is still a fast-growing field of research contributing to our present understanding of the brain's function during normal and disturbed behavior.

This handbook aims towards a detailed and comprehensive overview of the many facets of behavioral serotonin research. As such, it will provide the most up-to-date and thorough reading concerning the serotonergic system's control of behavior and mood in animals and humans. The goal is to create a systematic overview and first-hand reference that can be used by students and scholars alike in the fields of genetics, anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, behavioral neuroscience, pathology, and psychiatry.

The chapters in this book will be written by leading scientists in this field. Most of them have already written excellent reviews in their field of expertise. The book is divided into 4 sections. After a historical introduction, illustrating the growth of ideas about serotonin function in behavior over the last forty years, section A will focus on the functional anatomy of the serotonergic system. Section B provides a review of the neurophysiology of the serotonergic system and its components. In section C, the involvement of serotonin in behavioral organization will be discussed in great detail, while section D deals with the role of serotonin in behavioral pathologies and psychiatric disorders.

The first handbook broadly discussing the behavioral neurobiology of the serotonergic transmitter system

Co-edited by one of the pioneers and opinion leaders of the past decades, Barry Jacobs (Princeton), with an international list (10 countries) of highly regarded contributors providing over 50 chapters, including leaders in the field such as K. P. Lesch, T. Sharp, A. Caspi, P. Blier, G.K. Aghajanian, E. C. Azmitia, and others

The only integrated and complete resource on the market containing the best information, integrating international research and providing a global perspective to an international community

Of great value not only for researchers and experts, but also for students and clinicians as a background reference