[Lithium and sensory analysis]

Despite our extensive knowledge regarding the biochemical and physiological actions of lithium, we have so far been unsuccessful in linking this information to the clinical actions of lithium in a unified model. It may be that a psychological/behavioural approach may allow us to achieve this objective. The present paper presents an outline of some studies on the behavioural actions of lithium in rats and mice and suggests how the data from such work can lead to a model of lithium action and of manic-depressive disorder couched in terms of information-processing mechanisms. Recent work in manic-depressive patients, using a signal detection task, is also described: the results are broadly confirmatory of the information-processing model of lithium effects.