A groundbreaking exploration of the neuroscience of spirituality and a bold new paradigm for health, healing, and resilience.

Whether it's meditation or a walk in nature, reading a sacred text or saying a prayer, there are many ways to tap into a heightened awareness of the world around us and our place in it. Lisa Miller draws on decades of clinical experience and award-winning research to show that humans are universally equipped with this capacity for spirituality, and that our brains become more resilient and robust as a result of it. Bringing scientific rigour to the most intangible aspect of our lives, Miller's counterintuitive findings reveal the measurable positive effects of spirituality: for better decision-making, a healthier brain and an inspired life.

Brimming with inspiration and compassion, this landmark book revolutionizes our understanding of spirituality, mental health and how to find meaning and purpose in life.

Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms, Second Edition, Six Volume Set is the most comprehensive work on sleep and circadian rhythms. This completely revised new edition, comprised of contributions from 450 renowned authorities in the field, covers what is new and known in the field. In addition to thorough coverage of the basics (physiology, sleep disorders etc.), this new edition includes a thorough examination of circadian rhythms that manage the sleep-wake cycle. Although this area is highly intertwined with sleep, it is a scientific discipline in and of itself, and will broaden the appeal of this work to health care providers and scientists. Other sections of interest explore consumer wearable devices to track sleep and circadian rhythms, artificial intelligence algorithms to detect sleep and abnormal sleep-related conditions, and new technology to treat sleep and circadian rhythm disorders. This book will be an ideal and primary reference resource for students, trainees, technologists, basic/clinical scientists, physicians, advanced practice providers, psychologists, nurses, and other medical and research personnel who want to explore any topic within the sleep and circadian rhythm field.

Genetics and Neurobiology of Down Syndrome provides a thorough review of the genetic etiology and mechanisms of trisomy 21. The author discusses the history of the syndrome, along with the clinical features and health consequences, including physical features, cognitive, and neurologic symptoms. Genetic counseling on pros and cons of prenatal screening and testing and associated ethical issues are explored. This unique book also covers the societal and demographic aspects as well as the future direction of therapeutic development.

Introduction to Basic Aspects of the Autonomic Nervous System, Sixth Edition, Volume One is an all-encompassing reference on the autonomic nervous system's basic function, dysfunction and pathology. This volume describes the anatomy of the autonomic nervous system and its role in the regulation of blood pressure, body temperature, respiration, micturition, digestion and renal function. Additional chapters focus on the autonomic modulation of the neuroendocrine system, sexual function, and immunity. There is also a chapter on mummies and the autonomic nervous system. With these chapters, readers will gain extensive knowledge on the autonomic nervous system's anatomy, functional organization and neurochemistry, which is critical to care for patients with autonomic disorders and guide patient-oriented research.

Neurological Complications of Systematic Cancer and Antineoplastic Therapy, Second Edition provides an expanded, updated and in-depth review of common manifestations related to neurology that occur in patients with systemic cancer. These include brain metastases, spinal cord compression, cerebrovascular events, and leptomeningeal disease. The book also discusses neurological complications related to treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy and is an essential reference for the practicing neurologist and oncologist. Sections in this new release cover the pathophysiology and molecular biology of cancer and the metastatic phenotype, Metastatic spread to cranial and peripheral nerves and brachial and lumbosacral plexuses, Metabolic and nutritional disorders, CNS infections, Neurological complications of immunotherapy and bone marrow transplants, Neurological complications of new molecular agents and immuno-modulatory drugs, and more.

The Neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder: Road to Novel Therapeutics combines the basic neurobiology of bipolar disorder with discussions of the most recent advances in research, including the interacting pathways implicated in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder, genetic approaches and the pharmacogenomics of bipolar disorder. The basic foundational understanding of the neurobiology underlying the disorder, along with a comprehensive summary of the most recent advances in research combine to aid advanced students and researchers in their understanding of bipolar disorder management using novel and fast-acting pharmaceutical and neuromodulatory approaches.

The Senses: A Comprehensive Reference, Second Edition, Seven Volume Set is a comprehensive reference work covering the range of topics that constitute current knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying the different senses. This important work provides the most up-to-date, cutting-edge, comprehensive reference combining volumes on all major sensory modalities in one set. Offering 264 chapters from a distinguished team of international experts, The Senses lays out current knowledge on the anatomy, physiology, and molecular biology of sensory organs, in a collection of comprehensive chapters spanning 4 volumes. Topics covered include the perception, psychophysics, and higher order processing of sensory information, as well as disorders and new diagnostic and treatment methods. Written for a wide audience, this reference work provides students, scholars, medical doctors, as well as anyone interested in neuroscience, a comprehensive overview of the knowledge accumulated on the function of sense organs, sensory systems, and how the brain processes sensory input. As with the first edition, contributions from leading scholars from around the world will ensure The Senses offers a truly international portrait of sensory physiology. The set is the definitive reference on sensory neuroscience and provides the ultimate entry point into the review and original literature in Sensory Neuroscience enabling students and scientists to delve into the subject and deepen their knowledge.

Music and the Aging Brain describes brain functioning in aging and addresses the power of music to protect the brain from loss of function and how to cope with the ravages of brain diseases that accompany aging. By studying the power of music in aging through the lens of neuroscience, behavioral, and clinical science, the book explains brain organization and function. Written for those researching the brain and aging, the book provides solid examples of research fundamentals, including rigorous standards for sample selection, control groups, description of intervention activities, measures of health outcomes, statistical methods, and logically stated conclusions.

Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, Second Edition, Four Volume Set the latest update since the 2010 release, builds upon the solid foundation established in the first edition. Updated sections include Host-parasite interactions, Vertebrate social behavior, and the introduction of 'overview essays' that boost the book's comprehensive detail. The structure for the work is modified to accommodate a better grouping of subjects. Some chapters have been reshuffled, with section headings combined or modified.

Progress in Brain Research series, highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters. Each chapter is written by an international board of authors.

We are in the midst of what is being called the 'psychedelic renaissance' with growing interest into how psychedelics alter consciousness, brain function and brain connectivity. The acute, often profound, effects of the psychedelic experience can induce lasting improvements in mental health demonstrating that chemistry forms the basis of mystical experience, consciousness and mental wellbeing.

Software Simulation and Modeling in Psychology: MATLAB, SPSS, Excel and E-Prime describes all the stages of psychology experimentation, from the manipulation of factors, to statistical analysis, data modeling, and automated stimuli creation. The book shows how software can help automate various stages of the experiment for which operations may quickly become repetitive. For example, it shows how to compile data files (instead of opening files one by one to copy and paste), generate stimuli (instead of drawing one by one in a drawing software), and transform and recode tables of data. This type of modeling in psychology helps determine if a model fits the data, and also demonstrates that the algorithmic is not only useful, but essential for modeling data.

Genetic Models and Molecular Pathways Underlying Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 241 provides the most recent information on the animal model systems that are available to study different forms of autism spectrum disorders. In addition to genetically engineered animals that uniquely model genetic forms of ASD, this volume also provides detailed chapters on a variety of specific topics, including An overview of genetic models of ASDs, Phenotypic modeling of ASD symptoms, Molecular mechanisms of NF1 model of ASD symptoms, Ube3a gene dosage disorders: molecular and circuit mechanisms of ASD, Circuit dysfunctions in ASD models, ERK signaling in genetic models of ASD, and more.

Imaging in Movement Disorders: Imaging in Atypical Parkinsonism and Familial Movement Disorders, Volume 142, addresses the use of imaging modalities across the spectrum of movement disorders and dementias. Over the last decades, advances in neuroimaging tools have played a pivotal role in expanding our understanding of disease aetiology and pathophysiology, identifying biomarkers to monitor disease progression, aiding differential diagnosis and in the identification of novel targets for therapeutic intervention. This updated volume covers PET Molecular Imaging in Atypical Parkinsonism, SPECT Molecular Imaging in Atypical Parkinsonism, Structural MRI in Atypical Parkinsonism, Functional MRI in Atypical Parkinsonism, and more.

The Opioid System as the Brain's Interface between Cognition and Motivation, Volume 239, focuses on the opioid system as the interface between the brain's cognitive and motivational systems. As the opioid system is widely distributed through the brain, particularly in areas implicated in cognition (hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, claustrum, thalamus) and motivation (hypothalamus, amygdala, pontine nuclei, periaqueductal gray and medulla), this book provides chapters that address ongoing research on topics such as the Brain's cognitive system, the Brain's motivational system, Antidepressant prescription patterns, Antidepressant-like effects of opioid receptor modulators, the Behavioral effects of antidepressant and anxiolytic drugs, and more.

Cerebral Lateralization and Cognition: Evolutionary and Developmental Investigations of Motor Biases, Volume 238, the latest release in the Progress in Brain Research series, discusses interdisciplinary research on the influence of cerebral lateralization on cognition within an evolutionary framework. Chapters of note in this release include Evolutionary Perspectives: Visual/Motor Biases and Cognition, Manual laterality and cognition through evolution: An archeological perspective, Laterality in insects, Motor asymmetries in fish, amphibians and reptiles, Visual biases and social cognition in animals, Mother and offspring lateralized social interaction across animal species, Manual bias, personality and cognition in common marmosets and other primates, and more.

Neurotrophins, the latest volume in the Vitamins and Hormones series first published in 1943, and the longest-running serial published by Academic Press, provides up-to-date information on crystal structures and basic structural studies on neurotrophins and their receptors, neurotrophin functions, and the biological actions of neurotrophins related to clinical conditions and disease. Each volume is thoroughly reviewed and focuses on a single molecule or disease that is related to vitamins or hormones, with the topic broadly interpreted to include related substances such as transmitters, cytokines, growth factors, and others.

The Auditory System and Human Sound-Localization Behavior provides a comprehensive account of the full action-perception cycle underlying spatial hearing. It highlights the interesting properties of the auditory system, such as its organization in azimuth and elevation coordinates. Readers will appreciate that sound localization is inherently a neuro-computational process (it needs to process on implicit and independent acoustic cues). The localization problem of which sound location gave rise to a particular sensory acoustic input cannot be uniquely solved, and therefore requires some clever strategies to cope with everyday situations. The reader is guided through the full interdisciplinary repertoire of the natural sciences: not only neurobiology, but also physics and mathematics, and current theories on sensorimotor integration (e.g. Bayesian approaches to deal with uncertain information) and neural encoding.

Essential Clinical Anatomy of the Nervous System is designed to combine the salient points of anatomy with typical pathologies affecting each of the major pathways that are directly applicable in the clinical environment. In addition, this book highlights the relevant clinical examinations to perform when examining a patient's neurological system, to demonstrate pathology of a certain pathway or tract. Essential Clinical Anatomy of the Nervous System enables the reader to easily access the key features of the anatomy of the brain and main pathways which are relevant at the bedside or clinic. It also highlights the typical pathologies and reasoning behind clinical findings to enable the reader to aid deduction of not only what is wrong with the patient, but where in the nervous system that the pathology is.

The Two Selves takes the position that the self is not a "thing" easily reduced to an object of scientific analysis. Rather, the self consists in a multiplicity of aspects, some of which have a neuro-cognitive basis (and thus are amenable to scientific inquiry) while other aspects are best construed as first-person subjectivity, lacking material instantiation. As a consequence of its potential immateriality, the subjective aspect of self cannot be taken as an object and therefore is not easily amenable to treatment by current scientific methods. Klein argues that to fully appreciate the self, its two aspects must be acknowledged, since it is only in virtue of their interaction that the self of everyday experience becomes a phenomenological reality. However, given their different metaphysical commitments (i.e., material and immaterial aspects of reality), a number of issues must be addressed. These include, but are not limited to, the possibility of interaction between metaphysically distinct aspects of reality, questions of causal closure under the physical, the principle of energy conservation, and more. After addressing these concerns, Klein presents evidence based on self-reports from case studies of individuals who suffer from a chronic or temporary loss of their sense of personal ownership of their mental states. Drawing on this evidence, he argues that personal ownership may be the factor that closes the metaphysical gap between the material and immaterial selves, linking these two disparate aspects of reality, thereby enabling us to experience a unified sense of self despite its underlying multiplicity.

Why do people find monkeys and apes so compelling to watch? One clear answer is that they seem so similar to us-a window into our own minds and how we have evolved over millennia. As Charles Darwin wrote in his Notebook, "He who understands baboon would do more toward metaphysics than Locke." Darwin recognized that behavior and cognition, and the neural architecture that support them, evolved to solve specific social and ecological problems. Defining these problems for neurobiological study, and conveying neurobiological results to ethologists and psychologists, is fundamental to an evolutionary understanding of brain and behavior. The goal of this book is to do just that. It collects, for the first time in a single book, information on primate behavior and cognition, neurobiology, and the emerging discipline of neuroethology. Here leading scientists in several fields review work ranging from primate foraging behavior to the neurophysiology of motor control, from vocal communication to the functions of the auditory cortex. The resulting synthesis of cognitive, ethological, and neurobiological approaches to primate behavior yields a richer understanding of our primate cousins that also sheds light on the evolutionary development of human behavior and cognition.

In the last fifteen years, there has been significant interest in studying the brain structures involved in moral judgments using novel techniques from neuroscience such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Many people, including a number of philosophers, believe that results from neuroscience have the potential to settle seemingly intractable debates concerning the nature, practice, and reliability of moral judgments. This has led to a flurry of scientific and philosophical activities, resulting in the rapid growth of the new field of moral neuroscience. There is now a vast array of ongoing scientific research devoted towards understanding the neural correlates of moral judgments, accompanied by a large philosophical literature aimed at interpreting and examining the methodology and the results of this research. This is the first volume to take stock of fifteen years of research of this fast-growing field of moral neuroscience and to recommend future directions for research. It features the most up-to-date research in this area, and it presents a wide variety of perspectives on this topic.

This textbook provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of the human brain and spinal cord for medical and graduate students as well as residents in the clinical neurosciences. Standing on the shoulders of training from outstanding scientist-teacher mentors and based on more than 30 years of experience teaching about the brain and spinal cord to medical and graduate students, this single authored text presents everything the reader would need as they begin their study of the nervous system. At the same time the experienced neuroscientist will find much useful and valuable information in these pages that is based almost exclusively on studies in experimental primates and observations in humans. Every effort has been made to present the complexities of the nervous system as simply and clearly as possible. The careful reader will discover a clarity and depth of coverage that makes the reading both instructional and enjoyable. Topics are presented logically and the text in an easy-to-read style. The accompanying line drawings emphasize important concepts in a clear and uncluttered manner.
Topics presented:
- Neurons, glial cells, degeneration, regeneration, axonal transport
- Review of the development of the human nervous system
- Overview of the anatomy of the spinal cord, brain stem and forebrain
- General sensory paths (pain, temperature, touch, pressure, proprioception)
- Special sensory systems (auditory, vestibular, visual, olfactory and gustatory)
- Eye movements and visual reflexes
- Comprehensive presentation of the regions involved in motor activity including the clinical manifestation of injuries to these motor areas
- Limbic system, hypothalamusand the autonomic nervous system
- Lobes of the brain, clinically important cortical areas and the results of lesions in these areas
- Blood supply to the spinal cord, brain stem, and brain including classical brain stem syndromes
- The meninges and the ventricular system
- Numerous helpful clinical correlations that emphasize the practical application of basic anatomical information.
* Presents the complexities of the nervous system as simply and clearly as possible
* Written with a clarity and depth of coverage that makes the reading both instructional and enjoyable
* Includes numerous illustrations emphasizing important concepts

Cognitive psychology has matured and flourished in the last half-century, as new theories, research tools, and theoretical frameworks have allowed cognitive psychologists and researchers to explore a broad array of topics. In the same vein, the depth of understanding and the methodological and theoretical sophistication have also grown in wonderful ways. Given the expanse of the field, an up-to-date and inclusive resource such as this handbook is needed for aspiring generalists who wish to read the book cover to cover, and for the many readers who are simply curious to know the current happenings in other cognition laboratories. Guided by this need, this volume's 64 chapters cover all aspects of cognition, spanning perceptual issues, attention, memory, knowledge representation, language, emotional influences, judgment, problem solving, and the study of individual differences in cognition. Additional chapters turn to the control of complex actions and the social, cultural, and developmental context of cognition. The authors include a mix of well-established influential figures and younger colleagues in order to gain an understanding of the field's forward trajectory. The volume also includes a mix of "tutorial" chapters and chapters that powerfully represent a particular research team's point of view.

Recent years have seen the rise of a remarkable partnership between the social and computational sciences on the phenomena of emotions. Rallying around the term Affective Computing, this research can be seen as revival of the cognitive science revolution, albeit garbed in the cloak of affect, rather than cognition. Traditional cognitive science research, to the extent it considered emotion at all, cases it as at best a heuristic but more commonly a harmful bias to cognition. More recent scholarship in the social sciences has upended this view.
Increasingly, emotions are viewed as a form of information processing that serves a functional role in human cognition and social interactions. Emotions shape social motives and communicate important information to social partners. When communicating face-to-face, people can rapidly detect nonverbal affective cues, make inferences about the other party's mental state, and respond in ways that co-construct an emotional trajectory between participants. Recent advances in biometrics and artificial intelligence are allowing computer systems to engage in this nonverbal dance, on the one hand opening a wealth of possibilities for human-machine systems, and on the other, creating powerful new tools for behavioral science research.
Social Emotions in Nature and Artifact reports on the state-of-the-art in both social science theory and computational methods, and illustrates how these two fields, together, can both facilitate practical computer/robotic applications and illuminate human social processes.