"The Handbook is intended to be a service to the neuroscience community, to help in finding available and useful information, to point out gaps in our knowledge, and to encourage continued studies. It represents the valuable contributions of the many authors of the chapters and the guidance of the editors and most important, it represents support for research in this discipline. Based on the rapid advances in the years since the second edition."--Publisher's website.

The Second Edition of the Handbook of Neurochemistry, which was published about 24 years ago, consisted of 10 volumes. The present, Third Edition, The Handbook of Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology, is over twice as large; indicating a great expansion of neuroscience in the past two decades. We now have not only more data on brain mechanisms relating to behavior (mental activity and cognitive processes), but we understand in some detail the mechanisms of these functions. The past editions focused purely on neurochemical aspects the new edition reflects the need of interdisciplinary approach for understanding neural mechanisms. In addition to metabolic processes, the 17 new volumes explore the functions of peptides, transport, immunology and other processes not well understood 24 years ago. Several volumes deal with pathological changes and with repair and therapy of both mental and neurological pathologies. The purpose of this edition is to provide an evaluation of the results of investigations; to serve as a guide rather than enumerating all the available findings in detail it indicates future possibilities and the existing knowledge in neuroscience. The significance of understanding neural processes needs no emphasis its potential is primary in mental and neural pathology, but also in physiological importance. The volumes should serve as an aid to researchers expanding our knowledge and to educators training the next generation of neuroscientists and clinicians.

This volume of the Handbook of Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology focuses on molecular events involved in synapse formation, synaptic plasticity and ongoing neural activity. The volume explores axonal growth cones, synapse development, and mechanisms of LTP and LTD, and calcium dynamics. Particular attention is given to function and trafficking of membrane proteins including various ion channels, aquaporines, gap junctions.

"This volume is intended to provide state-of-the-art and the most up-to-date knowledge on the mechanisms of neuronal death and repair after stroke." -- Preface.

The Handbook is intended to be a service to the neuroscience community, to help in finding available and useful information, to point out gaps in our knowledge, and to encourage continued studies. It represents the valuable contributions of the many authors of the chapters and the guidance of the editors and most important, it represents support for research in this discipline. Based on the rapid advances in the years since the second edition

The second volume of the Handbook does not parallel any volume of the first edition; it is one more sign, or reflection, of the expansion of the field. By emphasizing the experimental approach, it illustrates the tools that have re cently become available for investigating the nervous system. Also, perhaps even more than other volumes, it illustrates the multidisciplinary nature of the field, requiring multidisciplinary methodology. It is now recognized that the availability of methodology is often the rate-limiting determinant of studies and that improvements or innovations in instrumentation can open up new avenues. A new improved method, although opening up new possibilities and being crucial to making advances, is only a tool whose use will determine its use fulness. If we do not recognize its possibilities, its use will be limited; if we do not recognize its limitations, it will mislead us. It is the possibilities and limitations and the results obtained that are illustrated here.