Product Description
One of the major challenges facing science is understanding the relationship between the structure of the brain and the functions it generates, and in particular how this function can be disturbed in brain disorders. This book addresses this challenge by describing the brain at the neuroanatomical, cellular, and subcellular levels, and analyzing how the cellular components are assembled into functional arrays. This leads to a discussion of the concept of mind, and modern theories of mind based on the function of neurons. The final part of the book considers disorders of the brain, looking in detail at Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. In each case, emphasis is placed on the relationship between changes in the brain at the biochemical level and changes in function at the behavioral and psychological level.

By bridging the gap between basic and clinical sciences, this book provides a new perspective on brain function and brain disorders. It explains key concepts clearly, giving students of neuroscience and related subjects a thorough introduction to this key topic, and a foundation for future study. It is also a concise review and reference text for researchers. ... Read more

Product Description
Explores the intriguing relationship between the age and sex of a patient and the nature and course of the development of a basal ganglia disorder. The study highlights newly discovered information about the genetic mechanism underlying the age-sex link in the development of the disease. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Backus Strikes Back
Excellent book.Great thoughts for anyone going through an illness
or difficult period in life.The power of positive thinking and the personality of Jim Backus make this book a classic. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Brain and Cognition, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Converging evidence from human lesion, animal lesion, and human functional neuroimaging studies implicates overlapping neural circuitry in ventral prefrontal cortex in decision-making and reversal learning. The ascending 5-HT and dopamine neurotransmitter systems have a modulatory role in both processes. There is accumulating evidence that measures of decision-making and reversal learning may be useful as functional markers of ventral prefrontal cortex integrity in psychiatric and neurological disorders. Whilst existing measures of decision-making may have superior sensitivity, reversal learning may offer superior selectivity, particularly within prefrontal cortex. Effective decision-making on existing measures requires the ability to adapt behaviour on the basis of changes in emotional significance, and this may underlie the shared neural circuitry with reversal learning. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Brain and Language, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
A variety of fluent and nonfluent aphasias have been reported after left basal ganglia stroke. It has been speculated that this heterogeneity may reflect variations in cortical hypoperfusion resulting from large vessel stenosis. To test this hypothesis, a consecutive series of 24 patients with left caudate infarct identified with diffusion-weighted imaging underwent language testing and perfusion-weighted imaging <24h from onset of symptoms. Specific regions in perisylvian cortex were rated for the percentage of the region that was hypoperfused. Aphasia type was determined on the basis of speech fluency, comprehension, and repetition performance on the language tests. Association between aphasia type/language impairment and regions of hypoperfusion were identified with Fisher's exact tests. Results demonstrated that in patients with acute left caudate infarct, the presence and type of aphasia reflected regions of hypoperfusion, and generally followed predictions based on chronic lesion studies, regarding anatomical lesions associated with classic aphasia types. ... Read more

Product Description

As the Baby Boomers head toward retirement, the four-volume “Encyclopedia of Aging” offers a timely resource encompassing all aspects of aging. Covering a variety of disciplines—biology, medicine, economics, law, psychology, sociology and history—the Encyclopedia also explores related issues such as religion, spirituality, and ethics.

Product Description

Targeted to patients, their families and allied health students, The “Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders” provides in-depth coverage of neurological diseases and disorders, including stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, Tourette Syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, cerebral palsy, vertigo, amnesia and epilepsy. Related topics include communication aids, electric personal assistive mobility devices, medications for treating neurological diseases and conditions, understanding the needs of Alzheimer patient caregivers and more. This two-volume set provides an alternative to resources that either fail to explore neurological disease in any depth and or do so at a level not appropriate for students and general readers.

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Adult male Wistar rats with a substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) lesion induced by intranigral administration of 1@mmol 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) were used as a model of early phase Parkinson's disease (PD). This lesion caused a partial depletion of striatal dopamine (DA). The animals were submitted to a spatial working memory version of the water maze task in which they had to find a hidden (submersed) platform using online-maintained information that the platform remains in the same place during four consecutive trials, but that it is moved to another place every training day. Left, but not right SNc-lesioned rats were impaired in finding the platform in the second trial. This result suggests that the left SNc plays a key role in spatial working memory. Control experiments ruled out the possibility that motor impairment, sensory neglect, and/or impairment in the mental representation of the contralateral spatial environment had affected performance of the SNc-lesioned rats. ... Read more

Product Description

The latest research regarding the neurodegenerative conditions known as neuroacanthocytosis will be found in this book. Recent advances have identified the range of mutations in the causative genes. In vitro studies have identified potential protein interactions, and work on erythrocyte membranes suggests mechanisms for the generation of acanthocytes. Animal models are being generated and provide the foundation for possible therapeutic interventions.

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Neuropsychologia, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The basal ganglia have been proposed as one of the neural correlates of timekeeping functions. Both encoding and memory retrieval components for time perception are impaired in Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of our study was to investigate in hemi-Parkinsonian patients the existence of a specific alteration in memory for time depending on the affected side, to better understand the contribution of the left or right basal ganglia circuits in different components of time perception. Right and left hemi-PD patients performed a time reproduction task in which they were required to reproduce in the same session short (5s) and long (15s) time intervals, in off- and on-therapy condition. While the right hemi-PD patients overestimated the shorter interval, only the left hemi-PD group showed the memory migration effect, overestimating the shorter and underestimating the longer time intervals. These results argue for a critical involvement of the right basal ganglia in memory retrieval for time intervals, in the range of seconds. ... Read more

Product Description

This book provides a unique and timely multidisciplinary synthesis of our current knowledge of the anatomy, pharmacology, physiology and pathology of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) dopaminergic neurons. The single chapters, written by top scientists in their fields, explore the life cycle of dopaminergic neurons from their birth to death, the cause of Parkinson's disease, the second most common and disabling condition in the elderly population. Nevertheless, the intracellular cascade of events leading to dopamine cell death is still unknown and, consequently, treatment is symptomatic rather than preventive. The mechanisms by which alterations cause neuronal death, new therapeutic approaches and the latest evidence of a possible de novo neurogenesis in the SNc are reviewed and singled out in different chapters. This book bridges basic science and clinical practice and will prepare the reader for the next few years, which will surely be eventful in terms of the progress of dopamine research.

Product Description

Part II starts with a systemic model of the basal ganglia to evaluate the position of the STN in the direct, indirect and hyperdirect pathways. A summary of in vitro studies is given, describing STN spontaneous activity as well as responses to depolarizing and hyperpolarizing inputs, and high frequency stimulation. STN bursting activity and the underlying ionic mechanisms are investigated. Deep brain stimulation used for symptomatic treatment of Parkinson’s disease is discussed in terms of the elements that are influenced and its hypothesized mechanisms. This part of the monograph pays attention to the pedunculopontine-subthalamic connections and tries in cell cultures to mimic neurotransmitter actions of the pedunculopontine nucleus and high frequency stimulation on cultured dissociated rat subthalamic neurons. STN cell models: single and multi compartment, and system level models are discussed in relation to subthalamic function and dysfunction. Part I and II are mutually compared.