It has become evident over the last years that abnormalities in RNA processing play a fundamental part in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Cellular viability depends on proper regulation of RNA metabolism and subsequent protein synthesis, which requires the interplay of many processes including transcription, pre---mRNA splicing, mRNA editing as well as mRNA stability, transport and translation. Dysfunction in any of these processes, often caused by mutations in the coding and non--- coding RNAs, can be very destructive to the cellular environment and consequently impair neural viability. The result of this RNA toxicity can lead to a toxic gain of function or a loss of function, depending on the nature of the mutation. For example, in repeat expansion disorders, such as the newly discovered hexanucleotide repeat expansion in theC9orf72 gene found in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a toxic gain of function leads to the formation of RNA foci and the sequestration of RNA binding proteins (RBPs). This in return leads to a loss of function of those RBPs, which is hypothesized to play a significant part in the disease progression of ALS and FTD. Other toxicities arising from repeat expansions are the formation of RNA foci, bi---directional transcription and production of repeat associated non---ATG (RAN) translation products. This book will touch upon most of these disease mechanisms triggered by aberrant RNA metabolism and will therefore provide a broad perspective of the role of RNA processing and its dysfunction in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders, including ALS, FTD, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, spinal muscular atrophy, myotonic dystrophy and ataxias. The proposed authors are leading scientists in the field and are expected to not only discuss their own work, but to be inclusive of historic as well as late breaking discoveries. The compiled chapters will therefore provide a unique collection of novel studies and hypotheses aimed to describe the consequences of altered RNA processing events and its newest molecular players and pathways.

This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the currently used concepts, approaches and technologies in the discovery and development of new treatments for the full spectrum of disorders of the central nervous system. It guides the reader through all essential steps, from finding an innovative idea, to the registration of a new drug. Divided into four sections, the book starts by presenting a broad perspective on current approaches in central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery. The second section addresses the generation of ideas for the identification of targets and novel treatment strategies; covers core functions in early discovery, and provides an example of a novel treatment paradigm: brain stimulation. The third section highlights strategies and technologies in translational CNS drug discovery. In an effort to bridge the gap between discovery and clinical development, it also covers brain imaging, EEG and cognitive testing approaches. The fourth section extensively discusses the clinical phase of drug development, covering the basics of early clinical testing for psychopharmacological drugs. The book's final chapter addresses the registration for newly developed drugs. Written by experts from academia and industry, the book covers important basics and best practices, as well as recent developments in drug discovery. Offering in-depth insights into the world of drug development, it represents essential reading for early researchers who want to prepare for a career in drug discovery in academia or industry.

It has long been appreciated among clinical neuropsychologists that both primary and secondary factors contribute to cognitive dysfunction in neurological patients. Primary influences are the direct result of the extent and location of damage to the brain. Secondary influences stem from something associated with brain injury or disease besides the specific areas of the brain affected. For example, a patient with a neurological disease may develop depression, something which in turn often impacts cognitive functioning. Other secondary factors associated with disease besides depression can also negatively impact cognitive functioning, including anxiety, pain, fatigue, and motor impairments, to name a few. Despite the widespread appreciation of the importance of such secondary factors on cognitive functioning in clinical neuropsychology, there has never been a single source for this information that is readily available to clinicians and researchers. The present volume provides such a source, using an evidence-based framework comprised of two broad sections. The first section includes chapters that comprehensively address particular secondary influences, independent of any particular neurological disorder. For example, there are chapters on the impact on cognitive functioning of depression, anxiety, fatigue, pain, diagnosis threat, and symptom invalidity. The second section has chapters that focus on specific neurological conditions and the most salient secondary factors that need to be considered in these conditions. Multiple Sclerosis, HIV, Parkinson's Disease, Traumatic Brain Injury, Alzheimer's Disease/MCI/Stroke, and Epilepsy are all considered. The chapters include vivid case studies that illustrate the principles outlined in the chapters to help clinicians consider how such principles can apply to particular patients. Chapters also include evidence-based guidelines for clinical practice. The final chapter highlights some areas especially in need of further research and study that will be of particular interest and importance to clinicians.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a relatively new diagnostic label which reflects the variability and differentiation of symptomatology among children and youth commonly described as having autistic disorder, high-functioning autism (HFA), and Asperger's syndrome. Current best practices have emerged from decades of evidence-based research, research-to-practice translation of empirically supported procedures, and consensus-driven recommendations from multiple disciplines. As a result, practitioners have many educational and intervention choices for children and youth with ASD-what is critical is that these options are informed by empirical outcomes that have been replicated in experimental trials (group and single-case) and disseminated to professionals and researchers alike. Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a state-of-the-art volume of 15 chapters across four thematic sections that reflect the current convention of viewing autism along a continuum of presenting symptoms. Skillfully edited by James K. Luiselli, sections cover diagnosis, assessment, and measurement; evidence-based practices; health and development; and additional topics such as mindful caregiving and support, CBT, and behavioral family intervention. Compiling the most up-to-date advances in approaches toward diagnosis, education, treatment, and program development, Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will be a valuable resource for professionals and trainees in the ASD field including psychologists, educators, therapists, behavior analysts, and similar practitioners. It is also appropriate for academic researchers and courses devoted to clinical psychology, special education, developmental disabilities, and special topics.

Metastatic Disease of the Nervous System, Volume 149, begins with an overview of the impact and range of direct neoplastic involvement of the central and peripheral nervous system, comprehensively reviewing all aspects of brain metastases, from clinical, radiological and neuropathological manifestations, to the roles of surgery, radiation, systemic and palliative therapy in their management, and the complications of these interventions. The clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of leptomeningeal, dural, spinal epidural and plexus metastases are also covered in detail.

This handbook identifies the various social deficiencies widely associated with children and youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It discusses possible causes as well as the lifelong effects if these deficiencies are not addressed. The handbook presents current behavioral and curriculum-based methods for assessing social deficits. Chapters examine the various interventions that have been used to improve social skills and behavior, including video modeling, peer-mediated interventions, and script fading. Chapters also assess various interventions using empirically based procedures, evaluate the research of each of these procedures, provide guidelines for treatment planning, and offer clinical recommendations. The handbook concludes with future directions for the development of both social behavior and clinical social skills interventions. Topics featured in the Handbook include: Impairments in social behavior that may result in negative outcomes such as depression, loneliness, and suicide in individuals with ASD. Bullying among youth with ASD. Behavioral skills training to promote social behavior of individuals with ASD. The Early Start Denver Model approach to helping young children with ASD. The implementation of social skills groups for individuals diagnosed with ASD. The Handbook of Social Skills and Autism Spectrum Disorder is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in clinical child, school, and developmental psychology, behavioral therapy, and social work, as well as such interrelated disciplines as child and adolescent psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine/therapy, pediatrics, and special education/educational psychology.

Direct versus Indirect Realism: A Neurophilosophical Debate on Consciousness brings together leading neuroscientists and philosophers to explain and defend their theories on consciousness. The book offers a one-of-a-kind look at the radically opposing theories concerning the nature of the objects of immediate perception-whether these are distal physical objects or phenomenal experiences in the conscious mind. Each side-neuroscientists and philosophers-offers accessible, comprehensive explanations of their points-of-view, with each side also providing a response to the other that offers a unique approach on opposing positions. It is the only book available that combines thorough discussion of the arguments behind both direct and indirect realism in a single resource, and is required reading for neuroscientists, neurophilosophers, cognitive scientists and anyone interested in conscious perception and the mind-brain connection.

Headache medicine research is a rapidly expanding discipline and many important advances in headache management have developed over the last 20 years. However, the revolution and evolution in headache medicine has remained limited largely to the developed countries. Indeed, there is an enormous need for further quality and capacity of headache care in most parts of the world. Thankfully, efforts to bridge this gap have begun. To date, training of practitioners in headache medicine is improving in the developing countries, country-specific epidemiological research is increasing, and new therapies are trickling slowly to the developing world.
Part of the Frontiers in Headache Research series, this book brings the theme of a global campaign to the forefront. Researchers, scientists, and respected clinicians from around the world discuss aspects of access to care, individual and societal burden, and public health authorities address the problems of headache medicine as public health issues to hundreds of millions of headache sufferers worldwide.

Although the history of epilepsy, one of the most common serious neurological disorders, can easily be traced back to ancient times, the modern understanding of the disease only began in the middle of the 19th century. This history of the first fifty years of modern epileptology reflects the thinking, accomplishments, and failures of physicians between 1865 and 1914. This epoch presented a very bleak clinical picture: diagnosis was difficult and often arbitrary; treatment was poor and, at times, worse than the disease; and patients, who were usually viewed as having a progressive dementing condition, were shunned by society.

Tradition, physicians' immaculate perceptions, their thinking in analogies, and the difficulty a doctor has in separating himself from his society are some of the important factors which led to a lack of clinical advancement during this time. Nevertheless, taking a longer view, a foundation was being established for understanding the physiology of the brain and how that might be related to epilepsy. This book should be of interest to any professional person concerned with or involved in exploring the neurophysiology of brain functions and its deviations, the care and treatment of patience with epilepsy, and the historical and social aspects of medicine.

This issue of Neuroimaging Clinics of North America focuses on Imaging of Brain Concussion, and is edited by Drs. Roy Riascos and Eliana E. Bonfante-Mejia. Articles will include: Traumatic Brain Injury: definition, neurosurgery, trauma-orthopedics, neuroimaging, and psychology-psychiatry; Multimodality advanced imaging for brain concussions; Perfusion weighted images in brain concussion; PET and SPECT in brain concussion; Imaging of chronic concussion; Imaging of concussion in young athletes; Imaging on concussion in blast injury; Conventional CT and MR in brain concussion; Structural imaging: structural MRI in concussion; Susceptibility weighted imaging and MR spectroscopy in concussion; Functional imaging fMRI - BOLD and resting state techniques in mTBI; Diffusion Weighted and Diffusion Tensor Imaging in mTBI; and more!

This issue of Neurologic Clinics, edited by Dr. Darin T. Okuda, focuses on Multiple Sclerosis. Topics include, but are not limited to, Myelin and Axonal Repair Strategies in Multiple Sclerosis; Common Clinical and Imaging Conditions Misdiagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis; Topographical Model for Multiple Sclerosis: A Novel Approach to Understanding Clinical Phenotypes and Disease Activity; Incidental Anomalies Characteristic of CNS Demyelination: Radiologically Isolated Syndrome; Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis: From Recognition to Practical Clinical Management; Progressive Forms of Multiple Sclerosis: Distinct Entity or Time Dependent Phenomena; Advanced Symptom Management Strategies in Multiple Sclerosis, Ethnic Considerations and Multiple Sclerosis Disease Variability; The Dynamics of the Gut Microbiome in Multiple Sclerosis in Relation to Disease; Spinal Cord Imaging in Relation to Clinical Status in Multiple Sclerosis, and more.

Temporal Sampling and Representation Updating, Volume 236, addresses the gap between laboratory studies using static or predictable stimuli and the more complex change that is a characteristic of the real world. Topics in this new volume include a section on Unfolding the time course of emotion perception, Temporal sampling and representation updating for action in interception and grasping tasks, The influence of Cognitive Control and Attention on Temporal Sampling: Lessons from the Attentional Blink, Synchronizing tracking eye movements with the motion of a visual target, and Sampling feature distributions with visual search in heterogeneous displays.

Huntington Disease summarizes the most recent findings related to the disease, providing both cutting edge coverage for clinical/research specialists looking to expand their knowledge base of Huntington disease information, as well as solid groundwork for advanced students from various backgrounds (neurology, psychiatry, neuropsychology, genetics). The volume includes all major areas of Huntington disease clinical care and research, whereas many other HD texts focus solely on neurological symptoms. This book also addresses behavioral and cognitive symptoms, brain imaging, and family dynamics and therapeutic alliances in working with individuals affected by HD. Clinical trials are covered extensively, including design considerations for therapeutic studies. The devastating nature of Huntington's disease is well appreciated throughout the neuroscience, neurology, and psychiatric communities, and a great amount of basic and clinical research is currently taking place. However, much of that occurs in isolated research silos, and it is critical that an interdisciplinary resource be developed to provide in depth information to enhance communication and collaboration. This volume in the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series is that resource.

The Neurobiology of Brain and Behavioral Development provides an overview of the process of brain development, including recent discoveries on how the brain develops. This book collates and integrates these findings, weaving the latest information with core information on the neurobiology of brain development. It focuses on cortical development, but also features discussions on how the other parts of the brain wire into the developing cerebral cortex. A systems approach is used to describe the anatomical underpinnings of behavioral development, connecting anatomical and molecular features of brain development with behavioral development. The disruptors of typical brain development are discussed in appropriate sections, as is the science of epigenetics that presents a novel and instructive approach on how experiences, both individual and intergenerational, can alter features of brain development. What distinguishes this book from others in the field is its focus on both molecular mechanisms and behavioral outcomes. This body of knowledge contributes to our understanding of the fundamentals of brain plasticity and metaplasticity, both of which are also showcased in this book.

Role of the Mediterranean Diet in the Brain and Neurodegenerative Disease provides a comprehensive overview of the effects of all components of the Mediterranean diet on the brain, along with its beneficial effects in neurodegenerative diseases. It covers topics on neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer disease (AD), Parkinson disease, (PD) Huntington disease (HD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also providing information on how cardiovascular disease, Type 2 Diabetes, and Metabolic Syndrome become risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases. This book focuses on how the Mediterranean diet suppresses oxidative stress and neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases as well as signal transduction. The Mediterranean diet is characterized by the abundant consumption of olive oil, high consumption of plant foods (fruits, vegetables, pulses, cereals, nuts and seeds); frequent and moderate intake of wine (mainly with meals); moderate consumption of fish, seafood, yogurt, cheese, poultry and eggs; and low consumption of red meat and processed meat products. High consumption of dietary fiber, low glycemic index and glycemic load, anti-inflammatory effects, and antioxidant compounds may act together to produce favorable effects on health status. Collective evidence suggests that Mediterranean diet not only increases longevity by lowering cardiovascular disease, inhibiting cancer growth, but also by protecting the body from age-dependent cognitive decline.

International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, Volume 53 provides a scholarly look at research on the causes, effects, classification systems and syndromes of developmental disabilities. Chapters in this new release include topics such as Parent Child Interactions in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Self-Regulation in children with autism spectrum disorders, Social cognition in neurodevelopmental syndromes, Telehealth anxiety services for individuals with adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, Adult Siblings of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities: Past, Present, and Future, and The Special Promise of Telemedicine to Address Health and Behavioral Needs of Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Contributors in this ongoing series come from wide-ranging perspectives, including genetics, psychology, education, and other health and behavioral sciences.

Brain Research in Addiction, Volume 235, the latest volume in this groundbreaking series on addiction, presents the neurobiological, pathological, cognitive and evolutionary aspects of addiction, with new chapters covering the Neurobiology of drug intake escalation, the Role of the orexinergic system in reward, Mental time travel and addictive behaviors, An evolutionary perspective on addiction- Addiction is the price we pay for innovation and adaptability, and how Cocaine exposure affects object-place recognition memory in non-human primates. Chapters in this serial are presented by leading researchers from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, who present addiction research from the bottom up, including how addiction evolved, basic research on animal models, and the psychiatric, psychological and cognitive characteristics of addictive behaviors in humans.

Neuroglia, the third edition, is the long-awaited revision of the most highly regarded reference volume on glial cells. This indispensable edition has been completely revised, greatly enlarged, and enhanced with four-color figures throughout, all in response to the tremendous amount of new information that has accumulated since the previous edition seven years ago. Glial cells are, without doubt, the new stars in the neuroscience and neurology communities. Neglected in research for years, it is now evident that the brain only functions in a concerted action of all the cells, namely glia and neurons. Seventy one chapters comprehensively discuss virtually every aspect of normal glial cell anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and function, and consider the central roles of these cells in neurological diseases including stroke, Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, neuropathy, and psychiatric conditions. More than 20 new chapters have been added to accommodate the unprecedented growth of knowledge about the basic biology of glia and the sophisticated manner in which they partner with neurons in the course of normal brain function. Lavishly illustrated and meticulously edited, the third edition remains the most convenient and maximally useful reference available. This new edition is an essential reference for both newcomers to the field as well as established investigators. Neuroglia belongs on every neuroscientist's bookshelf and will be a great asset for educators and neurological clinicians as well.

This issue of Neuroimaging Clinics of North America focuses on Dual Energy CT: Applications in Neurologic, Head and Neck Imaging, and is edited by Drs. Reza Forghani and Hillary R. Kelly. Articles will include: Dual Energy CT: Physical Principles and Approaches to Scanning, Part 1; Dual Energy CT: Physical Principles and Approaches to Scanning, Part 2; Dual Energy CT Applications for Differentiation of Intracranial Hemorrhage, Calcium, and Iodine; Dual Energy CT Angiography of the Head and Neck and Related Applications; Miscellaneous and Emerging Applications of Dual Energy CT for the Evaluation of Intracranial Pathology; Applications of Dual Energy CT for the Evaluation of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma; Dual Energy CT Applications for the Evaluation of Cervical Lymphadenopathy; Miscellaneous and Emerging Applications of Dual Energy CT for the Evaluation of Pathologies in the Head and Neck; Dual Energy CT Applications for the Evaluation of the Spine; Applications of Dual Energy CT for Artifact Reduction in the Head, Neck, and Spine; Advanced Tissue Characterization and Texture Analysis using Dual Energy CT: Horizons and Emerging Applications; and more!

This issue of Neuroimaging Clinics of North America focuses on Functional Connectivity, and is edited by Dr. Jay Pillai. Articles will include: Applications of rs-fMRI to presurgical mapping: sensorimotor mapping; Dynamic functional connectivity methods; Machine learning applications to rs-fMRI analysis; Frequency domain analysis of rs-fMRI; Applications of rs-fMRI to epilepsy; Data-driven analysis methods for rs-fMRI; Applications of rs-fMRI to presurgical mapping: language mapping; Limitations of rs-fMRI in the setting of focal brain lesions; Applications of rs-fMRI to neuropsychiatric disease; Applications of rs-fMRI to Traumatic Brain Injury; Applications of rs-fMRI to neurodegenerative disease; Graph theoretic analysis of rs-fMRI; and more!