Includes bibliographies and index.

1. Pharmacological, physiological and clinical implications of the discovery of cannabinoid receptors: an overview / R. G. Pertwee -- 2. Structural requirements for cannabinoid receptor probes / Billy R. Martin, Brian F. Thomas and Raj K. Razdan -- 3. The role of cell membranes in cannabinoid activity / Alexandros Makriyannis -- 4. Molecular biology of the cannabinoid receptor / L. A. Matsuda and T. I. Bonner -- 5. Localization of cannabinoid receptors in brain and periphery / Miles Herkenham -- 6. Cannabinoid compounds and signal transduction mechanisms / Allyn C. Howlett -- 7. Functional significance of cannabinoid receptors in brain / Sam A. Deadwyler, Robert E. Hampson and Steven R. Childers -- 8. The unpaved road to the endogenous brain cannabinoid ligands, the anandamides / R. Mechoulam and E. Fride.

Neuroscience Perspectives provides multidisciplinary reviews of topics in one of the most diverse and rapidly advancing fields in the life sciences. The recent discovery of an abundance of cannabinoid receptors in mammalian tissue has revolutionized cannabis research. Already it has led on to the further discovery that ligands for these receptors are present in the brain. A major implication of these findings is that cannabinoids have importance not only as pharmacological agents, but also as physiological mediators. Thus cannabinoid research must now extend well beyond the realms of pharmacology and molecular biology into those of physiology and pathophysiology. Endogenous cannabinoids and their receptors could well have significant roles in the processes of perception, cognition, memory and learning, in the regulation of movement and in the control of mood and emotion. The evidence is that psychotropic cannabinoids have long been known to produce marked changes in all of these central activities, and it is the brain areas responsible for many of them (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia and cerebellum) that are rich in cannabinoid receptors.