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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues > Neurosciences
As stated in the preface to the first edition, the goal of this monograph is to provide an overview of current thought about the spinal cord mechanisms responsible for sensory processing. We hope that the book will be of value to both basic neuroscientists and clinicians. The organization of the monograph has followed the original plan in most respects, although the emphasis has changed with respect to many topics because of recent advances. In particular, a substantial increase in the number of investigations of the dorsal root ganglion has led us to devote a chapter to this topic. The treatment of chemical neuroanatomy in the dorsal horn, as well as the relevant neuropharmacology, has also been expanded considerably. Another major emphasis is on the results of experiments employing microneurography in human subjects. We thank Margie Watson and Lyn Schilling for their assistance with the typing and Griselda Gonzales for preparing the illustrations.
AsanadditiontotheEuropeanpostgraduatetrainingsystemforyoung neurosurgeons, we began to publish in 1974 this series of Advancesand Technical Standards in Neurosurgery which was later sponsored by the EuropeanAssociationofNeurosurgicalSocieties. This series was ?rst discussed in 1972 at a combined meeting of the Italian and German Neurosurgical Societies in Taormina, the founding fathersoftheseriesbeingJeanBrihaye,BernardPertuiset,FritzLoewand HugoKrayenbuhl. ThuswereestablishedtheprinciplesofEuropean- operationwhich havebeenbornfromthe Europeanspirit,?ourishedin theEuropeanAssociation,andhavebeenassociatedthroughoutwiththis series. ThefactthattheEnglishlanguageisnowtheinternationalmediumfor communicationatEuropeanscienti?cconferencesisagreatassetinterms ofmutualunderstanding. Thereforewehavedecidedtopublishallcont- butionsinEnglish,regardlessofthenativelanguageoftheauthors. All contributions are submitted to the entire editorial board before publicationofanyvolumeforscrutinyandsuggestionsforrevision. Ourseriesisnotintendedtocompetewiththepublicationsoforiginal scienti?cpapersinotherneurosurgicaljournals. Ourintentionis,rather,to present?eldsofneurosurgeryandrelatedareasinwhichimportantrecent advanceshavebeenmade. Thecontributionsarewrittenbyspecialistsin thegiven?eldsandconstitutethe?rstpartofeachvolume. Inthesecondpartofeachvolume,wepublishdetaileddescriptionsof standardoperativeproceduresandindepthreviewsofestablishedkno- edge in all aspects of neurosurgery, furnished by experienced clinicians. This part is intended primarily to assist young neurosurgeons in their postgraduatetraining. However,weareconvincedthatitwillalsobeu- fultoexperienced,fullytrainedneurosurgeons. We hope therefore that surgeons not only in Europe, but also throughouttheworld,willpro?tbythisseriesofAdvancesandTechnical StandardsinNeurosurgery. TheEditors Contents ListofContributors...XIII Advances .. Gene Technology Based Therapies in the Brain. T. Wirth1,4 and S. Yla- Herttuala1,2,3, 1A. I. Virtanen Institute,University of Kuopio, Kuopio,F- land, 2DepartmentofMedicine,UniversityofKuopioandGeneTherapyUnit, Kuopio, Finland, 3Gene Therapy Unit, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland,4ArkTherapeuticsOy,Kuopio,Finland Abstract...3 IntroductiontoGeneTherapy:ThePast,PresentandFuture...4 PotentialAreasforGeneTherapyintheBrain...6 GeneTherapyforParkinson'sDisease...7 GeneTherapyforAlzheimer'sDisease...8 GeneTherapyforVascularBrainDiseases...9 GeneTherapyforBrainTumours...11 ChallengesofGeneTherapyintheBrain...12 GeneTransferVectors...15 ViralGeneTransferVectors...17 Retroviruses...17 HerpesSimplexVirus-1(HSV-1)...17 Adenoviruses...18 Adeno-AssociatedVirus(AAV's)...18 Non-ViralVectors...19 Ethics...20 ConcludingRemarks...21 Acknowledgement...21 References...21 VIII Contents TechnicalStandards AnatomyoftheOrbitanditsSurgicalApproach. G. Hayek,Ph. Mercier,and H. D. Fournier, Laboratory of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Angers,Angers,France Abstract...35 Introduction...36 AnatomyoftheOrbit...36 TheOrbitalCavity...36 TheOrbitalFasciaorPeriorbita...38 OrbitalContents...39 OrbitalMuscles...40 TheArteriesoftheOrbit...42 VeinsoftheOrbit...47 NervesoftheOrbit...48 LacrymalGland...55 ApproachRoutestotheOrbit...56 Incision...56 TheLateralApproachRoute...57 OsteoplasticTechniques...58 Non-OsteoplasticTechniques...58 TheSuperiorApproachRoute...60 TheHybridLateral/SuperiorRoute...63 Discussion...
Suicide Prevention: A Holistic Approach contains the selected and edited papers that were presented during the congress Suicide, Disease, Disadvantage, A Holistic Approach, organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention, which was held in June 1995, in Venice. Suicide prevention is still sadly neglected by governments and public health authorities, despite the fact that in several Western countries suicide has become the primary cause of death among younger age groups. The selected papers express the need for a holistic viewpoint in suicide management. The subjects range from parasuicide to the role of the media, from the special type of psychotherapeutic approach required to the most recent guidelines in pharmacological treatment, from a homage to the memory of Erwin Ringel to the presentation of specific national prevention schemes. The book will be of interest to public health workers, doctors, psychologists and social workers, as well as voluntary staff and their organizations, and to all those who make suicide prevention one of their primary interests.
Offers a unique multidisciplinary overview of how humans interact with soft objects and how multiple sensory signals are used to perceive material properties, with an emphasis on object deformability. The authors describe a range of setups that have been employed to study and exploit sensory signals involved in interactions with compliant objects as well as techniques to simulate and modulate softness - including a psychophysical perspective of the field. Multisensory Softness focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the use of multiple sources of information in softness perception. Divided into three sections, the first Perceptual Softness deals with the sensory components and computational requirements of softness perception, the second Sensorimotor Softness looks at the motor components of the interaction with soft objects and the final part Artificial Softness focuses on the identification of exploitable guidelines to help replicate softness in artificial environments.
Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience - classics which will endure for generations to come. What if intelligent life on earth not only evolved on land, but also in the sea? Other Minds is a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself - a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind's fitful development over millennia, Other Minds explores the incredible evolutionary journey of the cephalopods. What kind of intelligence do they possess? And how did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? Heralded as the 'scuba-diving philosopher' when Other Minds first published, Peter Godfrey-Smith explores the underwater world and the concept of sentience to trace the question of inner life back to its roots. By comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Other Minds casts crucial new light on the octopus mind - and on our own.
Neuronal phase response curves (PRCs) summarize the relationship between the timing of inputs within a neuron's spike cycle and the consequent shifts in output spike timing. The form of a neuron's PRC reflects its mechanism of spike initiation or excitability as well as other influences of membrane conductances on synaptic integration. PRCs are efficient encapsulations of the input-output processing of individual neurons to single perturbations and are powerful devices for the prediction and interpretation of patterned neuronal network activity including synchronization phenomena in connected networks or populations receiving shared input. Thus, application of phase response analysis to neural systems targets the interface of neural computation at the cellular and network levels, one of the most critical and expansive gaps in our understanding of the brain. This volume surveys the diversity of applications of phase response analysis by many of the prominent theoreticians and experimentalists in the Computational Neurosciences. Readers will find a thorough introduction to the foundational concepts underlying phase response analysis, advanced techniques for accurate estimation of neuronal PRCs, and impactful illustrations of both the cellular underpinnings of the phase response properties of neurons and the power of phase response analysis to explain network behavior. Throughout the book, the authors use phase response analysis to elucidate a number of neural systems that are current foci of exciting research in the Computational Neurosciences and are at the forefront of our advancing grasp of the complex mechanisms of brain function and dysfunction.
Since the epochal discovery of the radical and highly toxic gas nitric oxide (NO) as a signaling molecule, two other no less toxic gases - carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) - have been found to also be involved in a plethora of physiological and pathophysiological functions. The gases termed gasotransmitters play an increasingly important role in understanding how signalling into and between cells is modulated and fine-tuned. The advent of gasotransmitters has profoundly changed our way of thinking about biosynthesis, liberation, storage and action mechanisms in cellular signaling. In recent years an impressive amount of new data, distributed throughout the existing literature, has been generated. For this book the editors have recruited distinguished colleagues in the field to summarize and review important biological, pharmacological and medical functions and their implications, as well as methods for the detection of gasotransmitters.
This important volume brings together significant findings on the neural bases of spoken language -its processing, use, and organization, including its phylogenetic roots. Employing a potent mix of conceptual and neuroimaging-based approaches, contributors delve deeply into specialized structures of the speech system, locating sensory and cognitive mechanisms involved in listening and comprehension, grasping meanings and storing memories. The novel perspectives revise familiar models by tracing linguistic interactions within and between neural systems, homing in on the brain's semantic network, exploring the neuroscience behind bilingualism and multilingual fluency, and even making a compelling case for a more nuanced participation of the motor system in speech. From these advances, readers have a more three-dimensional picture of the brain-its functional epicenters, its connections, and the whole-as the seat of language in both wellness and disorders. Included in the topics: * The interaction between storage and computation in morphosyntactic processing. * The role of language in structure-dependent cognition. * Multisensory integration in speech processing: neural mechanisms of cross-modal after-effect. * A neurocognitive view of the bilingual brain. * Causal modeling: methods and their application to speech and language. * A word in the hand: the gestural origins of language. Neural Mechanisms of Language presents a sophisticated mix of detail and creative approaches to understanding brain structure and function, giving neuropsychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, developmental psychologists, cognitive psychologists, and speech/language pathologists new windows onto the research shaping their respective fields.
A presentation of all aspects of neural crest cell origins (embryological and evolutionary) development and evolution; neural crest cell behavior (migration) and anomalies (neurocristopathies and birth defects) that arise from defective neural crest development. The treatment of development will include discussions of cellular, molecular and genetic aspects of the differentiation and morphogenesis of neural crest cells and structures derived from neural crest cells. The origins of the neural crest in embryology will be discussed using the recent information on the molecular basis of the specification of the neural crest. Also presented are the advances in our understanding of the evolution of jaws from studies on lampreys and of the neural crest from studies on ascidians and amphioxus.
The number of mouse models that are available for the study of human genetic neurological disorders is large and growing rapidly. Therefore, it was difficult to select the models that were reviewed in this volume. Clearly, there are important models that are not discussed, and perhaps a volume twice this size would have been more appropriate. Moreover, the pace at which new models are being developed and analyzed is rapid. As this volume goes to press, I am sure that additional mouse genes responsible for naturally occurring neurological disorders are being discovered and that many new transgenic and mutant mouse strains are being developed. Therefore, this volume should not be viewed as a comprehensive compendium, but rather as an update of work in progress. It is exhilarating to witness the fast pace at which these models are being established as important tools in the study of basic neuroscience and neurological disorders. It will be even more exciting to see their utilization in the development and testing of therapeutic interventions for these diseases. I would like to thank each of the authors who have contributed to this volume for their time and their expertise. I would also like to thank Drs. Timothy Coetzee and Joshua Corbin for their advice in the selection of the topics covered. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Kunihiko Suzuki, who first approached me with the idea for this volume, for his guidance throughout its preparation.
With recent advances of modern medicine more people reach the "elderly age" around the globe and the number of dementia cases are ever increasing. This book is about various aspects of dementia and provides its readers with a wide range of thought-provoking sub-topics in the field of dementia. The ultimate goal of this monograph is to stimulate other physicians' and neuroscientists' interest to carry out more research projects into pathogenesis of this devastating group of diseases.
Research of 5-HT2c receptors stretches back twenty-five years, and while much of it has been productive, the past decade of research has been extraordinary in terms of both amount produced and insights gained. It is hardly surprising that 5-HT2c receptor research has grown so fruitful, given that it is a prominent central serotonin receptor subtype widely expressed within the central and the peripheral nervous system and is thought to play a major role in the regulation of numerous behaviors. It has further been shown by experimental and clinical observation that it may represent a possible therapeutic target for the development of drugs for a range of central nervous system disorders. The time, therefore, is more than appropriate to offer the first ever overview of the research of 5-HT2c receptors. Part of the popular and important series, "The Receptors," The 5-HT2c Receptor provides a thorough update of the functional status of the 5-HT2c receptor. It covers the molecular, cellular, anatomical, biochemical and behavioral aspects of this receptor so as to highlight its distinctive regulatory properties and the emerging functional significance of constitutive activity and RNA-editing in vivo. In addition, the book investigates the receptors' therapeutic potential in a range of different diseases, treated individually in separate chapters, including depression, drug abuse, schizophrenia, eating disorders, Parkinson's disease, Prader-Willi Syndrome, Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy. While not exhaustive, this text is a vital tool in understanding the past and inspiring the future of interdisciplinary research on the 5-HT2c receptor.
Response times are a fascinating source of information on how the mind is organized - the time taken to carry out an action tells us something about the choice process involved. This is a critical but even-handed treatment of the major themes of how response times play a role in our thinking about the mind. Professor Luce provides a comprehensive, clear review of the experimental data, and puts forward the idea of the hazard function - a novel and important approach that he and his colleagues have developed. This function, based on the probability that an reaction is about to occur given that no reaction has occurred so far during a trial, exaggerates the differences that normal analysis methods often obscure. This enables the researcher to rule out more confidently known mechanisms of time delay in human performance. Since measurements of response times are widely used by experimental psychologists as one approach to distinguishing between theories of intellectual functioning, the conceptual arguments that Professor Luce brings to bear on mathematical models of response time are of great relevance to mathematical and experimental psychologists.
This book presents an emerging new vision of the brain, which is essentially expressed in computational terms, for non-experts. As such, it presents the fundamental concepts of neuroscience in simple language, without overwhelming non-biologists with excessive biological jargon. In addition, the book presents a novel computational perspective on the brain for biologists, without resorting to complex mathematical equations. It addresses a comprehensive range of topics, starting with the history of neuroscience, the function of the individual neuron, the various kinds of neural network models that can explain diverse neural phenomena, sensory-motor function, language, emotions, and concluding with the latest theories on consciousness. The book offers readers a panoramic introduction to the "new brain" and a valuable resource for interdisciplinary researchers looking to gatecrash the world of neuroscience.
We are at the midpoint in the "Decade of the Brain." Why do we know so much and yet understand so little about the brain? The field of neuroscience has exploded, and anyone who attends one of the large meetings has the impression of drinking from a fire hydran- as so aptly put by the late neuroanatomist Walle J. H. Nauta. Part of that feeling is a general-information problem, experienced in other fields of scienc as well. In brain research, however, the problem is accentuated by the rapid advances of molecular and cellular brain research. The dynamics created by these lines of research have multiplied published output, but have inevitably entailed a compartmentalization of scientific interests and research strategies. If the cost of gaining knowledge is a shrinking horizon of the individual scientist, neuroscience must develop strategies for organizing the acquisition of knowledge. Some of this guidance is given by the society -by medical and, perhaps, commercial needs. But who provides the backbone for establishing a generally accepted "schema" for basic brain research -a frame of reference onto which the millions of information fragments can be fitted, in a way acceptable to a multicultural and polymethodical neuroscience community? We believe that developmental and evolutionary biology has the potential to provide a commonly accepted frame of reference for that multilevel system approach needed to understand the workings of the brain.
This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date review of the distribution, pharmacology and physiology of central 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)4 receptors. The 5-HT receptor subtypes exhibit a unique pharmacology, distribution and function, of which the 5-HT4 receptor has been one of the most intensively studied in recent years, both from a basic research standpoint and as a target for novel therapeutics.
* Provides very accessible coverage of a complex topic. * Includes a wealth of open-ended activities, practical strategies and case studies. * Blends together theory and practice to increase the knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence of early years practitioners. * Covers a range of hot topics, considering how poverty, adversity, and mental health, all affect the developing child.
Arguably biosonar is one of the 'eye-opening' discoveries about animal behavior and the auditory systems of echolocators are front and center in this story. Echolocation by bats has proven to be a virtual gold mine for colleagues studying neurobiology, while providing many rich examples of its impact on other areas of bats' lives. In this volume we briefly review the history of the topic (reminding readers of the 1995 Hearing by Bats). We use a chapter on new findings in the phylogeny of bats to put the information that follows in an evolutionary context. This includes an examination of the possible roles of Prestin and FoxP2 genes and various anatomical features affecting bat vocalizations. We introduce recent work on the role of noseleafs, ears, and other facial components on the focusing of sound and collection of echoes.
PHILOSOPHY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE: CATEGORIES, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND REASONING The individual man, since his separate existence is manifested only by ignorance and error, so far as he is anything apart from his fellows, and from what he and they are to be, is only a negation. Peirce, Some Consequences of Four Incapacities. 1868. For the second time the International Colloquium on Cognitive Science gathered at San Sebastian from May, 7-11, 1991 to discuss the following main topics: Knowledge of Categories Consciousness Reasoning and Interpretation Evolution, Biology, and Mind It is not an easy task to introduce in a few words the content of this volume. We have collected eleven invited papers presented at the Colloquium, which means the substantial part of it. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to include all the invited lectures of the meeting. Before sketching and showing the relevance of each paper, let us explain the reasons for having adopted the decision to organize each two years an international colloquium on Cognitive Science at Donostia (San Sebastian). First of all, Cognitive Science is a very active research area in the world, linking multidisciplinary efforts coming mostly from psychology, artificial intelligence, theoretical linguistics and neurobiology, and using more and more formal tools. We think that this new discipline lacks solid foundations, and in this sense philosophy, particularly knowledge theory, and logic must be called for.
The cerebral cortex, especially that part customarily designated "neocortex," is one of the hallmarks of mammalian evolution and reaches its greatest size, relatively speaking, and its widest structural diversity in the human brain. The evolution of this structure, as remarkable for the huge numbers of neurons that it contains as for the range of behaviors that it controls, has been of abiding interest to many generations of neuroscientists. Yet few theories of cortical evo lution have been proposed and none has stood the test of time. In particular, no theory has been successful in bridging the evolutionary gap that appears to exist between the pallium of nonmammalian vertebrates and the neocortex of mam mals. Undoubtedly this stems in large part from the rapid divergence of non mammalian and mammalian forms and the lack of contemporary species whose telencephalic wall can be seen as having transitional characteristics. The mono treme cortex, for example, is unquestionably mammalian in organization and that of no living reptile comes close to resembling it. Yet anatomists such as Ramon y Cajal, on examining the finer details of cortical structure, were struck by the similarities in neuronal form, particularly of the pyramidal cells, and their predisposition to laminar alignment shared by representatives of all vertebrate classes."
Volume 33 reviews the current understanding of ion channel
regulation by signal transduction pathways. Ion channels are no
longer viewed simply as the voltage-gated resistors of
biophysicists or the ligand-gated receptors of biochemists. They
have been transformed during the past 20 years into signaling
proteins that regulate every aspect of cell physiology. In addition
to the voltage-gated channels, which provide the ionic currents to
generate and spread neuronal activity, and the calcium ions to
trigger synaptic transmission, hormonal secretion, and muscle
contraction, new gene families of ion channel proteins regulate
cell migration, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, and gene
transcription, as well as electrical excitability. Even the genome
of the lowly roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans encodes almost 100
distinct genes for potassium-selective channels alone. Most of
these new channel proteins are insensitive to membrane potential,
yet in humans, mutations in these genes disrupt development and
increase individual susceptibility to debilitating and lethal
diseases.
This book will bring together leading international experts to discuss recent advances in basic scientific knowledge regarding the regulation of presynaptic Ca2+ channels. Importantly, Ca2+ channels represent one of the most widely modulated proteins in the body, being the target of a range of effector pathways and drugs; this range will be fully represented here. A number of therapeutic drugs target the Ca2+ channel complex, including the anti-epileptic gabapentinoid and analgesic ziconotide drugs and the pharmaceutical industry is searching for Ca2+ channel blocking drugs, particularly in the pain, epilepsy, ataxia and migraine areas. Such potential future therapies will be discussed here. Scientific disciplines will focus on electrophysiological studies, but will extend to neuroscience, genetics and biochemical areas. The work described will represent advances at the cutting edge of current neuroscience research and is timely and highly appropriate for the Springer book series. |
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