Serotonin and Sleep: Molecular, Functional and Clinical Aspects

This book focuses on the neuropsychopharmacology of serotonin and its role in sleep and wakefulness, presenting neurochemical, electrophysiological, and neuropharmacological approaches to understand the mechanisms of serotonin and related substances. Covering core and contemporary topics in the area, this volume is valuable for all researchers interested in interdisciplinary studies concerning drugs affecting the central nervous system.Serotonin and Sleep: Molecular, Functional, and Clinical Aspects covers the complete spectrum of the field and explores the link between the latest basic molecular, functional, and clinical aspects of serotonin and the practice of sleep medicine. The volume focuses on 24 different areas of research, with special emphasis relating the state of basic and clinical research to potential applications: changing concepts in serotonin research, topographic organization and chemoarchitecture, receptor mechanisms its organization and regulation of behavioral states, electrophysiological mechanisms in vitro, in vivo, and behaving animals and other areas of molecular neurobiology. Also highlighted are studies related to the circadian control of behavioral states, and mechanisms involved in the serotonergic inhibition of REM sleep. Such discussion has profound implications for the basic biology of serotonin. §This unique volume not only explores the cutting-edge research, and the relationship of serotonin to laboratory animals as well as human sleep; it also explores the relevance of serotonin to clinical disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, and sleep apnea and brings these areas together to continue to promote the rapid expansion of knowledge in the area of serotonergic neurotransmission across behavioral states. §Written by an international cadre of researchers, this timely volume provides an up-to-date summary of what may be the only view on serotonin from the perspectives of neurobiologists, neuroanatomists, cell biologists, psychiatrists, neuropharmacologists, as well as sleep researchers.