The Endocrine System ― Coping With the Environment : Neural and Endocrine Mechanisms

This unique volume provides fresh insights into the neuroendocrine systems that enable individuals to cope with their physical and social environments. Since the pioneering work of Claude Bernard and Walter Cannon on homeostasis and Hans Selye and John Mason on stress, there have been profound advances in biomedicine, and the regulation of gene expression has emerged as a major theme in connecting nature with nuture. With this has come an appreciation of the long time frame in which the environment produces both adaptive and maladaptive changes in an individual organism during the lifespan. Indeed, experiences early in life can have a life-long impact, and advances in behavioral and social sciences have interfaced with biology to reveal that the psychosocial environment shapes life-long patterns of neuroendocrine function and behavior, thus influencing physical and mental health. This book begins by discussing the two main stress mediators, the catecholamines and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. It then deals with the neurobiology of fear, stress and coping and with biological aspects of stress and coping during the life course. Next it considers diurnal rhythms, sleep and immune defense mechanisms. Finally it discusses stress and coping in the social environment in both animal models and humans. The book should provide an intellectual framework for further integration of social, psychological, and biological sciences around basic concepts in physiology.