This volume contains the Proceedings of the Meeting "Neuronal plasticity and gangliosides" which was held at Mantova, Italy, on May 29-31, 1985, as a satellite to the Tenth Meeting of the International Society for Neurochemistry, (Riva del Garda, Italy, May 19-24,1985). The Symposium took place in the "Teatro Bibiena", one of the oldest and most beautiful theatres in Italy, known for having been the place for some of the very first performances of W .A. Mozart. The number of registered participants in the Meeting was about 180 including 40 accor:Qpanying persons. The persons invited as Speakers or Chairmen of Colloquia and Workshops were 48. Eighteen countries were represented with the largest contingent coming from Italy, followed by Federal Republic of Germany, The United States, France and Great Britain. The Meeting was based on Colloquia, Workshops, Round Tables and Poster Sessions, with a total of 42 Lectures and 32 Poster presentations.

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Gangliosides and Modu lation of Neuronal Functions" was held at the University of Stutt gart-Hohenheim, Federal Republic of Germany, on October 20 - 24, 1986. About 70 participants from 10 countries presented papers on a wide range of topics all concerning the ganglioside theme. The content of the workshop consisted of the following chap ters: (1) Fundamentals for research on function of gangliosides; (2) Brain ganglioside metabolism; (3) Cell specific distribution and differentiation-related ex pression of brain gangliosides; (4) Gangliosides and neuronal plasticity; (5) Bio-medical potential of exogenous ganglioside application on neuronal function; and (6) Critical assessments on aspects of ganglioside therapy. The aim of the workshop was to sum up and discuss the present knowledge in the respective fields. Despite intensive research on gangliosides ever since Ernst Klenk discovered them in 1936, the biological function of. these amphiphilic, "sphinx-like" glycosphingo lipids remains elusive. Over the past few years, several thousands of articles on gangliosides have been published demonstrating very special properties of these glycolipids and their possible in volvement in diverse biological phenomena. As far as we know up to the present time, these properties may be due to particular physico-chemical attributes of these compounds, especially in com bination with calcium. The results obtained so far have shed light not only on pos sible functional roles of gangliosides with regard to cellular induction and organization, but have also unexpectedly opened up VI a whole new field of therapeutic applications for these compounds.

This book discusses a particular aspect of brain function, that of storage and retrieval of memory of past experience, in terms of neuronal plasticity. In discussing this aspect of brain functions, however, it discusses brain mecha nisms in their wider sense as well. Clearly, the central nervous system is a highly interconnected system from all points of view, and it would not be possible to understand function in terms of only a single event or only a sin gle neurotransmitter. This is true for any biochemical activity that accompanies neuronal functional activity and accompanies behavior. The authors have commendably recognized this complexity, and recognize still more the need to present information in a compact and uniform manner in spite of the tremendous expansion of our knowledge in recent years. It is a somewhat easier task to gather a set of authors and record their results for a multiauthor symposium, but it is a most admirable endeavor for two authors to summarize a field that encompasses subjects such as transmission barri ers, lipids, proteins, energy, hormones, to name a few that this book covers so well in a compact manner, and in such depth as well. Metabolism and func tion cannot really be understood without understanding structural factors, changes in membrane properties, and changes in metabolism.

Proceedings of a Symposium held at the University of Bremen in August 1987 as a Satellite Meeting of the Second World Congress of Neuroscience