High blood pressure disease is one of the most prevalent pathological conditions in modem society with potentially serious consequences. During the last two decades major progress has been made in the development of rational approaches to the treatment of high blood pressure. A key factor in this progress has been an increase in our understanding of how the brain controls blood pressure. The chapters in the present book, together with those in a previous volume, provide a broad overview of recent progress in our knowledge of the central neural mechanisms involved in the regulation of the cardiovascular system. It is our hope that these essays by leading experts in the field will not only provide a useful source of information, but will also stimulate inquiry leading to new discoveries in this critically important field of research. George Kunos John Ciriello vii List of Contributors Jeffrey J. Anderson, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana 46208, USA Katsuyuki Ando, Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Tokyo 112, Japan Jaideep S. Bains, Department of Physiology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6 Kathleen H. Berecek, Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Vascular Biology and Hypertension Program, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA Vernon S. Bishop, Department of Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78284-7756, USA P. A.