Presentation to the

XXI International Congress of Neurovegetative Research

5-7 April 1993, Bologna, Italy

The neural regulation of visceral functions, in health and disease, is a matter of paramount 19iological and medical significance. Thus, this Congress, like its previous editions (the last one was held in Tokyo in September 1990), will be a natural outcome of a great deal of current research, both clinical and experimental. We hope, however, it will be much more than that. A gathering of this type offers an opportunity for reflection, and should allow consensus to flow together with countercurrents and challenges implicit in a multidisciplinary interaction.

The ebullient growth of biological research is projected naturally towards the outer boundaries, rich with new fascinating details, invisible and almost unthinkable even a short time ago. So it could well be that the keys to understanding living processes will be found at the very edges of knowledge, where the current frontier expands. Hence, a large number of international meetings deal with these frontiers, in terms of specific techniques and topics. However, as a less desirable result, language and scientific currency, in general, of innumerable fields have diversified to such an extent that in this immense archipelago one often does not understand what is happening on the next island.

One of the aims I clearly see for this Congress is that of asserting the need for combining the teachings and beliefs of different specialities or of the studies of different systems: to work, in other words, towards a more holistic approach definable as a scientific syncretism.

A clinician knows how often disturbances of the heart beat, gastrointestinal motility, appetite, vascular responses, micturition, sexual activity - and the list could go on - are attributed to some neural mechanisms, which is a way of saying that the organism is a whole and that the crucial reason for a disturbance is neither in the cell nor in the organ. And clinicians know how often neural mechanisms transform a seemingly localized pathologic occurrence into a complex cascade of events involving many bodily functions. Awareness of the inner dialogues and of the integration provided by the autonomic nervous system is part and parcel of the wisdom of a clinician.

This approach must also be appealing to the experimenters, who have recognized the rich rewards of multidisciplinary research. Our amazing ability to isolate the details under study should not let us forget that any exploration bears the relevance of the general hypothesis which is at its base: in short, no magnification should totally substitute the naked eye's vision.

I warmly thank Drs. Giorgio Gabella, Wilfrid J~inig, Giuseppe Micieli and Marco Prosdocimi, together with the other Members of the Executive Committee and of the Advisory Board, for their help in planning and organizing the Congress. A wide survey will be offered of what has recently been found in fields as crucial as the central and peripheral organizations of neurovegetative regulation, development, plasticity, time structure and rhythmicity involved in modulation of visceral functions (heart and blood vessels, eye, gut, urogenital organs), their central and peripheral degenerative processes or the auto- nomic adaptations occurring during stress and sleep.

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The expert knowledge of the invited speakers and the wide coverage of communications and posters should provide a fertile ground for interaction and lively discussion.

Our ambitious goal is that all participants will learn something new and unexpected and yet relevant to their own research.

I also wish that, in the course of this conference, our language (mine included) might become simpler and that the efforts of communicating the gist of our specialized work to all participants will be successful.

Benvenuti a Bologna! A warm welcome to everybody. I am sure that, individually and collectively, we will witness, and contribute to, great advances in neurovegetative research, and I can only look with great expectation to the future of our field.

Finally, I wish to thank FIDIA, Abano Terme, Italy, whose generous financial support made this meeting in Bologna possible, as well as the publication of this Supplement of the Journal of the Autonomic Nervous System.

Alberto Malliani President of the XXI International Congress of Neurovegetative Research