As societies move toward greater industrialization--with its attendant increased technologies--there is a parallel increase in several mental dysfunctions in the population: depression, dementia, stress, to name but a few. An international symposium is proposed which will explore basic functions of the nucleus locus coeruleus (LC). The evidence increasingly indicates that dysfunction of this brain area is directly (perhaps causally) related to a number of these neurologic and social maladies. The Symposium will bring together leading researchers working on the LC and its major neurotransmitter, norepinephrine to discuss their relationship to these dysfunctions. The Symposium will consist of five topical sessions, one poster session and a concluding discussion session. The first session will deal with developmental and trophic aspects of the LC and lay the anatomical groundwork for the following sessions dealing with dementia and depression, states of consciousness, stress and epilepsy, and drug addiction and withdrawal. Each of the five sessions will have six presentations of research focused on some aspect of the session's topic, preceded by a unifying overview. A discussion period will follow each session.
