INTRODUCTION 



The study of the Biochemistry of Nervous Tissue has expanded 

 rapidly over the past ten years. Today, the subject has attracted a 

 number of workers from many disciphnes, sufficient to have led to 

 the holding of International Symposia specifically devoted to the 

 topic and to the publication of a separate journal. The growth of 

 the subject is well illustrated by the publication of a book con- 

 cerned exclusively with the relationship of biochemistry to the 

 central nervous system (Mcllwain, 1959). This rapid expansion 

 is an encouraging recognition of the importance of the brain both 

 as a tissue possessed of unique biochemical properties and as the 

 tissue comprising the " master organ of the body ". 



Amongst the many problems existing in relation to cerebral 

 metabolism one of major importance concerns the manner in which 

 the energy produced by the oxidation of glucose is used to main- 

 tain the ability of the neurone to respond to stimuli. In the normal 

 brain this response can be detected as electrical activity recorded by 

 the electroencephalograph. Many changed mental states are 

 accompanied by changes in the electrical activity so recorded and 

 also by equally marked changes in the rates of metabolism of many 

 cellular components. Changes of this type provide a basis for 

 considering that the changed functioning of the brain is closely 

 related to some altered metabolic property of the tissue. A notable 

 example of such an alteration has been demonstrated by Tower 

 (1955) who has shown that tissue taken from the epileptogenic foci 

 of brain specimens, removed during operation, lack the ability to 

 resynthesize acetyl choline in the bound form in which it normally 

 exists. 



Amongst the earliest biochemical changes detected in brain 

 during excitatory states were alterations in the metabolism of 

 phosphate derivatives, observations which established a causal 

 relationship between phosphates and the functioning of the brain. 

 The study of these relationships forms the major theme of this 



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