Book excerpt: The third edition of this monograph continues to have the goal of providing an overview of current thought about the spinal cord mechanisms that are responsible for sensory processing. We hope that the book is of value to both basic and clinical neuroscientists. Several changes have been made in the presentation, as well as additions because of the research advances that have been made during the past decade. Chapters 3 and 4 in the previous edition have been subdivided, and now the morphology of primary afferent neu rons of the dorsal root ganglia is described in Chapter 3 and the chemical neuroanatomy of these neurons in Chapter 4. The description of the dorsal horn in the previous Chapter 4 is now included in Chapter 5, and the chemical neuroanatomy of the dorsal horn in Chapter 6. Furthermore, discussions of the descending control systems have now been consolidated at the end of Chapter 12. The authors would like to express their appreciation for the help provided by several individuals. R.E.C. wishes to acknowledge the many things he learned about primary afferent neurons from conversations with Dr S. N. Lawson. He also thanks Lyn Shilling for her assistance with the typing. WDW thanks Dr Nada Lawand for her critical reading of parts of the manuscript, Rosaline Leigh for help with the manuscript, and Griselda Gonzales for preparing the illustrations.