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Intellectual ability

By definition evoked potentials are "the detectable electrical changes in the brain in response to deliberate stimulation of any part of the nervous system” (16). The importance of recording human brain responses to controlled sensory stimuli is well recognized. These responses represent, in fact, the end product of a long series of events in the nervous system from the peripheral receptor organs, through many interneurones and relay stations, up to the cortical neurons which participate in their production. Any change, physiological, chemical or pathological, occurring anywhere along their paths may be reflected in the recorded evoked responses. It is conceivable, therefore, that the study of these electrophysiological data can yield useful information about the functional state of the nervous system.

The association of certain critical periods in life, such as puberty, pregnancy and the menopause, with changes in mental state provoked speculation from the earliest times as to the possible effects of 'humors' on the mind. [...]

A review of psychiatric classifications in use throughout the world (STENGEL, 1960) reveals that only four out of 38 diagnostic systems provide a classif1ing label for a condition as familiar to clinicians as the schizophrenic residual, or "defect", state.+ The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ot the A.M.A. (1952) reserves the term Schizophrenic reaction, residual type, for "those patients who, after a definite psychotic, schizophrenic reaction, have improved sutficiently to be able to get along in the community, but who continue to show recognizable residual disturbance of thinking, affectivity, and/or behavior." [...]

Harmala alkaloids have attracted the interest of many investigators on account of their effect on the extrapyramidal system, their hallucinogenic properties, their inhibitory activity on monoamine oxidase and the hypothetical role of related compounds in mental illness. [...]

Saffran, Grad and Bayliss (1952) were the first to demonstrate the stimulation by ACTH of the production of adrenocortical hormones by the rat adrenal cortex in vitro. This finding was followed by a number of investigations into the nature of adrenocortical function. In this thesis a series of experiments is reported that were undertaken to obtain more information concerning the metabolism in vitro of the adrenal cortex, and, if possible, to define the significance of ascorbic acid for the adrenocortical function.

Rapid progress has been made in the understanding of the pathways of homeostatic responses. It is now known that any disturbance in the steady state of the body's internal environment, be it abrupt or tedious, exogenous or endogenous to the organism, will evoke in it rapid and complex responses, mediated through its endocrine and nervous systems and tending to counteract the effects of the disturbing stimulus.

The first indications that amines are broken down in the body by deamination are to be found in a paper published by Schmiedeberg in 1877. Schmiedeberg demonstrated that in the dog, benzylamine given orally was excreted as hippuric acid, and he assumed that free benzoic acid was first formed prior to conjugation. A little later, Schmiedeberg and Minkowski were both able to isolate benzoic acid from minced rabbit liver incubated with benzylamine. [...]