Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology in Reproduction [antikvár]

PREFACE The psychoendocrinology of humán reproduction is today considered to be an area of psychosomatic research where interdisciplinary collaboration assumes maximai importance. In man, the reproductive function is unique by virtue of its dual psychobiological and psychosocial nature in which the emotions play a very important part, linking the social and external environment and biological reproductive activity. In this context, the study of neurohormones at the hypothalamic level and of the neurotransmitters of the limbic system acquire particular importance, both from the point of view of regulation of the reproductive function, as well as that of emotional (or psychosocial) regulation. In fact, the reproductive function has somé peculiar characteristics which make it especially interesting from a neuroendocrinological viewpoint. Above all, we believe that it is influenced by two relatively independent systems of emotional reaction, yet in turn both are susceptible to social and environmental factors. The first system, which might be defined as "reproductive emotionality", is closely linked to the reproduction of the species. The phylogenetic study of this system shows how its evolution is closely correlated with the progressive development of the limbic system and hypothalamic structure as one advances up the evolutionary scale. The second system which elaborates individual emotionality aims at conservation of the individual, and it, too, seems to follow the same increasingly complex pattern of development as the limbic-hypothalamic system involved in reproductive emotionality. The two systems interact in ways which are as yet unknown, thus posing numerous problems to psychoendocrinological researchers, one of which is the identification of those common or separate functional structures of the two emotional systems. Animál research will undoubtedly be able to contribute notably to the solution of such enigmas. However, the extrapolation of results from neuroendocrinological animal research to humán reproduction has often proved arbitrary and fallacious. In fact, the evolution of humán cortical structures permitting the elaboration of abstract and symbolic activity and communication does emphasize the importance of social and psychosocial determinants in the activation of emotions and,