Neurotrophic interactions in the nervous system.

Traditional views have suggested that information flow in the nervous system is dependent on millisecond-to-millisecond communication occurring in a point-to-point manner. However, recent evidence suggests that growth and trophic functions are central to development and maintenance of function in the brain. In turn, trophism occurs over days to weeks to months and appears to underlie processes as diverse as learning, memory and development, on the one hand, and the pathogenesis of disease, on the other. This work group focussed on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying trophic function in the brain.