Molecular anatomy of neuronal interactions with special reference to the dopamine control of striatal functions

Modern neuroanatomy was initiated at the early beginning of the XXth century when Cajal used the so-called silver impregnation technique to study the details of the anatomy of the nervous system. This technique, for the first time, permitted description and visualization of all components of neurons (Cajal, 1909). Thanks to this major methodological advance, Cajal and followers created microscopic neuroanatomy and gave detailed description of the structure of neurons and of neuronal circuitry in brain of animals and humans. During the following decades, numerous informations were obtained on the organization of the neuronal circuitry in all parts of the central and peripheral nervous system, in normal, experimental and pathological conditions. These works considerably helped to establish the modern anatomical basis of brain functions and dysfunctions. In the early sixties, the appearance of electron microscopy gave a new impulse to the understanding of brain and neuronal structures.