During the period 1981 - 1990, important areas of research being recognized were visual information processing, monoclonal antibodies, pharmacology, molecular biology and transplantation. The laureates according to the specific year are: (1981) R W SPERRY -- for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres; D H HUBEL & T N WIESEL -- for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; (1982) S K BERGSTRÖM, B I SAMUELSSON & J R VANE -- for their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances; (1983) B McCLINTOCK -- for her discovery of mobile genetic elements; (1984) N K JERNE, G J F KÖHLER & C MILSTEIN -- for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies; (1985) M S BROWN & J L GOLDSTEIN -- for their discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism; (1986) S COHEN & R LEVI-MONTALCINI -- for their discoveries of growth factors; (1987) S TONEGAWA -- for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity; (1988) J W BLACK, G B ELION & G H HITCHINGS -- for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment; (1989) J M BISHOP & H E VARMUS -- for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes; (1990) J E MURRAY & E D THOMAS -- for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.