Book excerpt: Biochemical Factors Concerned in the Functional Activity of the Nervous System presents the biological aspects concerned in the functional activity of the nervous system. This book covers several interesting topics concerning the central nervous system, including phospholipids, RNA synthesis, nerve impulse flow, and nerve growth factor. Comprised of 213 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the electron micrographs of calcium–ATP–phospholipid complexes. This text then examines the biochemical and histochemical studies on sectioned rat spinal cords, which demonstrated two types of monoamine-reducing drugs. Other chapters consider the diversity of antagonistic relations between the thiamine derivatives and vitamin B6, which is manifested by changes in the glutamate–GABA, histidine–histamine, tryptophan–serotonin, and tyrosine–noradrenaline systems. This book discusses as well the influence of a conditioned avoidance training experience on the incorporation of radioactive uridine into the RNA of mouse brain. The final chapter deals with the amino acid-incorporating activity of cerebral polyribosomes. This book is a valuable resource for biochemists, neurologists, pharmacologists, and biophysicists.