This book provides an essential overview of the broad range of functional brain imaging techniques, as well as neuroscientific methods suitable for various scientific tasks in fundamental and clinical neuroscience. It also shares information on novel methods in computational neuroscience, mathematical algorithms, image processing, and applications to neuroscience. The mammalian brain is a huge and complex network that consists of billions of neural and glial cells. Decoding how information is represented and processed by this neural network requires the ability to monitor the dynamics of large numbers of neurons at high temporal and spatial resolution over a large part of the brain. Functional brain optical imaging has seen more than thirty years of intensive development. Current light-using methods provide good sensitivity to functional changes through intrinsic contrast and are rapidly exploiting the growing availability of exogenous fluorescence probes. In addition, various types of functional brain optical imaging are now being used to reveal the brain's microanatomy and physiology.

This open access book describes marked advances in imaging technology that have enabled the visualization of phenomena in ways formerly believed to be completelyimpossible. These technologies have made major contributions to the elucidation of the pathology of diseases as well as to their diagnosis and therapy. The volume presents various studies from molecular imaging to clinical imaging. It also focuses on innovative, creative, advanced research that gives full play to imaging technology inthe broad sense, while exploring cross-disciplinary areas in which individual research fields interact and pursuing the development of new techniques where they fuse together. The book is separated into three parts, the first of which addresses the topic of visualizing and controlling molecules for life. Th e second part is devoted to imaging of disease mechanisms, while the final part comprises studies on the application of imaging technologies to diagnosis and therapy. Th e book contains the proceedings of the 12th Uehara International Symposium 2017, "Make Life Visible" sponsored by the Uehara Memorial Foundation and held from June 12 to 14, 2017. It is written by leading scientists in the field and is an open access publication under a CC BY 4.0 license.

The molecular genetics of the cholinergic system including both muscarinic and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, cholinesterases, acetylcholine synthesis and release have provided significant insights into potential targeting for pharmacological intervention. Cholinergic drugs are being used or evaluated for the treatment of diseases. Thus, this volume aims to broaden our understanding of the current state of cholinergic mechanisms to enable implementation of novel approaches for the development of more effective treatments.

This book summarizes the latest research findings in the neurocircuitry of innate behaviors, covering major topics such as innate fear, aggression, feeding, reward, social interaction, parental care, spatial navigation, and sleep-wake regulation. For decades, humans have been fascinated by wild animals' instincts, like the annual two-thousand-mile migration of the monarch butterfly in North American, and the "imprint" behavior of newborn birds. Since these instincts are always displayed in stereotypical patterns in most individuals of a given species, the neural circuits processing such behaviors must be genetically hard-wired in the brain. Recently, with the development of modern techniques, including optogenetics, retrograde and anterograde virus tracing, and in vivo calcium imaging, researchers have been able to determine and dissect the specific neural circuits for many innate behaviors by selectively manipulating well-defined cell types in the brain. This book discusses recent advances in the investigation of the neural-circuit mechanisms underlying innate behaviors.

This book discusses recent brain research and the potentially dangerous dual-use applications of the findings of these research projects. The book is divided into three sections: Part I examines the rise in dual-use concerns within various state's chemical and biological non-proliferation regime's during this century, as well as the rapid technologically driven advances in neuroscience and the associated possible misuse considerations in the same period. Part II reviews the brain research projects in the EU, USA, Japan, China and several other countries with regard to their objectives, achievements and measures to deal with the problem of dual-use. Part III assesses the extent to which the results of this civil neuroscience work, which is intended to be benign, are being, and could be protected against future hostile applications in the development of novel chemical and biological weapons.

The Hypothalamus is an important area of the brain for understanding a variety of neurological disorders. This volume summarizes for readers the anatomy and physiology of the middle and posterior hypothalamus, to better understand pathology and treatment of hypothalamus related disorders. In addition to anatomy and physiology in humans, cytoarchitecture and chemoarchitecture in rodents is provided. The volume explores the role of the hypothalamus in disorders of eating, sleeping, anxiety, and mood, as well as its role in sexual behavior and gender identity. Coverage includes how Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders relate to the hypothalamus.

PACE Yourself: Alcohol, Addiction and Exercise provides qualitative research about the influence of exercise on alcohol use disorder (AUD) recovery. In addition, the author explains how someone can benefit from exercise and explores how the PACE method could help keep new addictions at bay. PACE is an acronym for Proactive Awareness Controlling Excess. The author has developed an app of the same name which is available in the Apple store. Exercise is medicine when it comes to the recovering body and mind of an alcoholic. Physiological and psychological changes as a result of moving the body contribute to prolonged sobriety and deter the cyclical threat the nature of alcohol abuse can pose upon person in recovery. The struggle to never become powerless to alcohol again can be kept at bay when the benefits of exercise over power the benefits alcohol used to have. However, the addictive mind can find a new habit to replace the old one. The PACE method proposes steps to become aware of replacement type behaviors with the understanding that anyone can become addicted to anything.

Neurology and Pregnancy provides a comprehensive multidisciplinary guide to best practices for research and practicing neurologists, as well as obstetricians and other specialists caring for women with an acute or chronic neurological disorder. The book encompasses preconception care, genetic counseling, pregnancy in patients with chronic neurological disorders, and acute pregnancy-related neurological complications. Postpartum care and complications, including lactation concerns, are also addressed, as well as the long-term effects of pregnancy and its complications on maternal brain health. Vol 1 summarizes the complex neurophysiological changes in pregnancy from a basic and translational science perspective. This includes neuroimaging, principles of neuro-obstetric critical care, and ethical and medicolegal concerns, describes normal fetal cerebral development and summarizes the management of the most common prenatal neurological diagnoses. Vol 2 focuses on chronic neurological conditions in pregnancy such as epilepsy, migraine, and multiple sclerosis, as well as acute neurological disorders including preeclampsia/ eclampsia, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, and CNS infections. Each chapter introduction includes data on epidemiology, when applicable. In discussing management, comments of safety profiles of medications preconceptionally, during pregnancy and lactation are summarized. Each chapter includes 1-2 illustrative cases.

The Hypothalamus is an important area of the brain for understanding a variety of neurological disorders. This volume summarizes for readers the anatomy and physiology of the anterior hypothalamus, to better understand pathology and treatment of hypothalamus related disorders. In addition to anatomy and physiology in humans, cytoarchitecture and chemoarchitecture in rodents is provided. The volume explores the role of the hypothalamus in disorders of eating, sleeping, anxiety, and mood, as well as its role in sexual behavior and gender identity. Coverage includes how Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders relate to the hypothalamus.

Evidence from neuroscience shows that individuals and organizations are more successful when people are encouraged to take risks, explore new ideas, and channel their energies in ways that work for them. And yet many organizations are filled with bullies, vicious gossip, undermining behaviours, hijacking tactics, political jockeying for position, favouritism and other factors that instil fear and impede productivity. It is no wonder that organizations are actively looking at how they can improve and maintain the psychological health and wellbeing of their employees to the benefit of all concerned. The Fear-free Organization reveals how our new understanding of the neurobiology of the self - how the brain constructs the person - can transform for the better the way our businesses and organizations work. Academic yet accessible, The Fear-free Organization addresses head on the issue that scared people spend a lot more time plotting their survival than working productively. The book helps leaders understand the neurobiology of fear, face the damage it is doing, and replace it with building relationships, managing energy flow and fostering trust. It guides you in making your workplace one that's full of energy, not adrenalin; focused on possibility, not profit; and generates independent thinking, not obedience so you can promote the psychological wellbeing that is strongly correlated with greater energy, motivation and better cognitive function.

This book reports on the development and assessment of a novel framework for studying neural interactions (the connectome) and their dynamics (the chronnectome). Using EEG recordings taken during an auditory oddball task performed by 48 patients with schizophrenia and 87 healthy controls, and applying local and network measures, changes in brain activation from pre-stimulus to cognitive response were assessed, and significant differences were observed between the patients and controls. This book investigates the source of the network abnormalities and presents new evidence for the disconnection hypothesis and the aberrant salience hypothesis with regard to schizophrenia. Moreover, it puts forward a novel approach to combining local regularity measures and graph measures in order to characterize schizophrenia brain dynamics, and presents interesting findings on the regularity of brain patterns in healthy control subjects versus patients with schizophrenia. Besides providing new evidence for the disconnection hypothesis, it offers a source of inspiration for future research directions in the field.

'Did you hear Amy has heartbreak?! What bad luck to catch it right at the end of winter.' When Ziella Bryars was in the midst of heartbreak, a conversation with her neuroscientist best friend changed everything. Frustrated by unhelpful advice from magazines and rom-coms, Ziella began diving deep into the latest scientific research to help her understand the pain of heartbreak and find a route to recovery. This warm and witty self-help book outlines the impact a relationship break-up has on our brains and bodies, and explores how a science-based approach can help us heal. Ziella passes on what she learned about how a broken heart can affect everything from our sleep to our digestion; how rejection is represented in the brain in the same way as physical pain; how the brain processes loss; and how a break-up can trigger addiction-like withdrawal symptoms - plus tips for counteracting heartbreak and moving on to acceptance.

This book reviews the various applications of nanotechnology in human health. The introductory chapters focus on the classifications, types, synthesis, and characterization of various types of nanomaterials, while subsequent chapters highlight current applications of nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of microbial and viral infections, and also in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Further, the book explores the potential role of nanomaterials in connection with neuronal differentiation, neuronal protection, and neurological diseases. It demonstrates the use of nanotechnology to diagnose and treat genetic disorders, as well as endocrine and metabolic syndrome diseases. It also discusses the ethics and the negative impacts of nanomaterials on human health. Lastly, it examines the intellectual property aspects and government regulations associated with the research, design, and commercialization of nanotechnology-based products. Given its scope, it offers a valuable resource for all researchers and professionals working with nanotechnology-based applications in human health.

This book illustrates the importance and significance of oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of various human diseases. The book initially introduces the phenomenon of oxidative stress, basic chemical characteristics of the species involved and summarizes the cellular oxidant and anti-oxidant system and the cellular effects and metabolism of the oxidative stress. In addition, it reviews the current understanding of the potential impact of oxidative stress on telomere shortening, aging, and age-related diseases. It also examines the role of oxidative stress in chronic diseases, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders. Further, the book presents novel technologies for the detection of oxidative stress biomarkers using nanostructure biosensors, as well as in vitro and in vivo models to monitor oxidative stress. Lastly, the book addresses the drug delivery carriers that can help in combating oxidative stress.

In this landmark work, V. S. Ramachandran investigates strange, unforgettable cases from patients who believe they are dead to sufferers of phantom limb syndrome. With a storyteller s eye for compelling case studies and a researcher s flair for new approaches to age-old questions, Ramachandran tackles the most exciting and controversial topics in brain science, including language, creativity, and consciousness."

Recent clinical trials show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be given safely in controlled conditions, and can cause lasting psychological benefits with one or two administrations. Supervised psychedelic sessions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and improve well-being in healthy volunteers, for months or even years. But these benefits seem to be mediated by "mystical" experiences of cosmic consciousness, which prompts a philosophical concern: do psychedelics cause psychological benefits by inducing false or implausible beliefs about the metaphysical nature of reality? This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs. Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism. Within the book, Letheby integrates empirical evidence and philosophical considerations in the service of a simple conclusion: this "Comforting Delusion Objection" to psychedelic therapy fails. While exotic metaphysical ideas do sometimes come up, they are not, on closer inspection, the central driver of change in psychedelic therapy. Psychedelics lead to lasting benefits by altering the sense of self, and changing how people relate to their own minds and lives-not by changing their beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality. The upshot is that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism (the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is). Controlled psychedelic use can lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain and spiritual growth-even if no Cosmic Consciousness or transcendent divine Reality exists. Philosophy of Psychedelics is an indispensable guide to the literature for researchers already engaged in the field of psychedelic psychiatry, and for researchers-especially philosophers-who want to become acquainted with this increasingly topical field.

Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original papers that invented the field of behavioral economics. One of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, Kahneman and Tversky's extraordinary friendship incited a revolution in Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis's own work possible. In The Undoing Project, Lewis shows how their Nobel Prize-winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.

The big question in the science of psychology is: Why are human cognition and behavior so different from the capabilities of every other animal species on Earth including our close genetic relations, the chimpanzees? This book provides a coherent answer by examining those aspects of the human brain that have made triadic forms of perception and cognition possible. Mechanisms of dyadic association sufficiently explain animal perception, cognition, and behavior but a three-way associational mechanism is required to explain the human talents for language, tool-making, harmony perception, pictorial depth perception, and the joint attention that underlies all forms of social cooperation."

The purpose of this work is to review recent findings highlighting the mechanisms and functions of the neuronal oscillations that structure brain activity across the sleep-wake cycle. An increasing number of studies conducted in humans and animals, and using a variety of techniques ranging from intracellular recording to functional neuroimaging, has provided important insight into the mechanisms and functional properties of these brain rhythms. Studies of these rhythms are fundamental not only for basic neuroscience, but also for clinical neuroscience. At the basic science level, neuronal oscillations shape the interactions between different areas of the brain and profoundly impact neural responses to the environment, thereby mediating the processing of information in the brain. At the clinical level, brain oscillations are affected in numerous neurological conditions and might provide useful biomarkers that inform about patients' evolution and vulnerability. During sleep, these brain rhythms could provide functional support to internal states that govern the basic maintenance of local circuit and systemic interactions. During wake, the rhythmicity of cortical and subcortical circuits have been linked with sensory processing, cognitive operations, and preparation for action. This book will attempt to link together these sleep and wake functional roles at the level of neuroimaging and electroencephalographic measures, local field potentials, and even at the cellular level.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of binge eating, which is characterized by the uncontrollable consumption of large amounts of food in a discrete time period. Written by experts on eating disorders, it first introduces the phenotype of binge eating, including its epidemiology and assessment. It then describes the underlying neurobiological alterations, drawing on cutting-edge animal models and human studies to do so. In addition, it extensively discusses current treatment models, including medication, psychotherapy, self-interventions and disease prevention. Lastly, an outlook on the future research agenda rounds out the coverage. Given binge eating's current status as an under-researched symptom, but one shared across many eating disorders, this book provides an up-to-date, integrative and comprehensive synthesis of recent research and offers a valuable reference for scientists and clinicians alike.

There have been extraordinary developments in the field of neuroscience in recent years, sparking a number of discussions within the legal field. This book studies the various interactions between neuroscience and the world of law, and explores how neuroscientific findings could affect some fundamental legal categories and how the law should be implemented in such cases. The book is divided into three main parts. Starting with a general overview of the convergence of neuroscience and law, the first part outlines the importance of their continuous interaction, the challenges that neuroscience poses for the concepts of free will and responsibility, and the peculiar characteristics of a "new" cognitive liberty. In turn, the second part addresses the phenomenon of cognitive and moral enhancement, as well as the uses of neurotechnology and their impacts on health, self-determination and the concept of being human. The third and last part investigates the use of neuroscientific findings in both criminal and civil cases, and seeks to determine whether they can provide valuable evidence and facilitate the assessment of personal responsibility, helping to resolve cases. The book is the result of an interdisciplinary dialogue involving jurists, philosophers, neuroscientists, forensic medicine specialists, and scholars in the humanities; further, it is intended for a broad readership interested in understanding the impacts of scientific and technological developments on people's lives and on our social systems.

Foundations of Sensation and Perception offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the science of sensation and perception. It covers all the human senses and answers many questions, such as why movies are so convincing, how ventriloquism works, why things sound different as you get older and why you may feel ill in an aircraft or sea vessel. Full of illustrations and graphs that bring concepts to life, the textbook covers vision, hearing, balance, touch, pain, smell and taste. It discusses each sensory system through its fundamental neuroscience, major perceptual qualities and underlying coding principles. Each chapter includes reflective questions, key terms and information boxes and chapter summaries. Each chapter ends with a tutorial section which introduces more advanced areas of study in an accessible way (including measurement of light and Fourier analysis) as well as topics outside of the mainstream of sensation (including music perception, colour deficiencies and phantom limbs). The fourth edition of this bestselling textbook includes an extensive update of the text to reflect the latest research, a greater focus on balance and the body senses and a major reorganisation of the chapters for ease of use. It will be an invaluable resource for a wide range of undergraduate students in psychology, neuroscience and related disciplines.

The 3rd World Congress on Genetics, Geriatrics, and Neurodegenerative Disease Research (GeNeDis 2018), focuses on recent advances in genetics, geriatrics, and neurodegeneration, ranging from basic science to clinical and pharmaceutical developments. It also provides an international forum for the latest scientific discoveries, medical practices, and care initiatives. Advanced information technologies are discussed, including the basic research, implementation of medico-social policies, and the European and global issues in the funding of long-term care for elderly people.

The 3rd World Congress on Genetics, Geriatrics, and Neurodegenerative Disease Research (GeNeDis 2018), focuses on recent advances in genetics, geriatrics, and neurodegeneration, ranging from basic science to clinical and pharmaceutical developments. It also provides an international forum for the latest scientific discoveries, medical practices, and care initiatives. Advanced information technologies are discussed, including the basic research, implementation of medico-social policies, and the European and global issues in the funding of long-term care for elderly people.

The 3rd World Congress on Genetics, Geriatrics, and Neurodegenerative Disease Research (GeNeDis 2018), focuses on recent advances in genetics, geriatrics, and neurodegeneration, ranging from basic science to clinical and pharmaceutical developments. It also provides an international forum for the latest scientific discoveries, medical practices, and care initiatives. Advanced information technologies are discussed, including the basic research, implementation of medico-social policies, and the European and global issues in the funding of long-term care for elderly people.