ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews several distinct issues in quantitative neuroendocrinology, including the specific quantification of pulsatile neurohormone data, evaluation of subordinate patterns within the measurements, the notion of feedback and feed-forward control, the potential concordance or synchrony in pulse trains, and approaches to establishing reproducibility of biological data. In signaling proximal or distal target tissues, neuroendocrine ensembles typically release quantal signals best described as bursts or pulses of hormone secreted into a relevant compartment, often the bloodstream but also the cerebrospinal fluid. Discrete peak detection methods have emerged since the early 1970s, as algorithms designed to identify and quantitate the amplitude and frequency of abrupt neurohormone concentration changes over time. Deconvolution analysis encompasses a class of mathematical techniques designed to extract from the neurohormone concentration data estimates of underlying hormone secretion rate and/or half-life. Biological test-retest reliability of neurohormone profiles is important to establish. Many unresolved issues remain that are under active investigation in the field of neuroendocrine pulse analysis.
