Wilfrid Jänig is Professor Emeritus of Physiology at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany. He has conducted neurobiological research on the autonomic nervous system since 1973. He combined research in Kiel with research at universities in Australia (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney), at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and at the University of California, San Francisco. His experiments, in which electrical signals in single sympathetic nerve fibers were recorded during natural and reflex activity, have established the principle of selective control of peripheral organs by the brain and the involvement of the sympathetic nervous system in various types of pain and in inflammation.

Foreword to the Second Edition Elspeth McLachlan; Foreword to the First Edition Elspeth McLachlan; Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction: The autonomic nervous system and the regulation of body functions; Part I. The Autonomic Nervous System: Functional Anatomy and Interoceptive Afferents: 1. Functional anatomy of the peripheral sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system; 2. Interoceptive afferent neurons and autonomic regulation with special emphasis on the viscera; Part II. Functional Organization of the Peripheral Autonomic Nervous System: 3. The final autonomic pathway and its analysis; 4. The peripheral sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways; 5. The enteric nervous system; Part III. Transmission of Signals in the Peripheral Autonomic Nervous System: 6. Impulse transmission through autonomic ganglia; 7. Mechanisms of neuroeffector transmission; Part IV. Representation of the Autonomic Nervous System in Spinal Cord, and Lower Brain Stem: 8. Anatomy of central autonomic systems; 9. Spinal autonomic systems; 10. Regulation of organ systems by the lower brain stem; Part V. The Centers of Homeostasis in the Mesencephalon and Hypothalamus and their Telencephalic Control: 11. Integration of autonomic regulation in upper brain stem and limbic-hypothalamic centers: a summary; Epilogue The autonomic system in future research: some personal views; Index.