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A Bayesian approach can contribute to an understanding of the brain on multiple levels, by giving normative predictions about how an ideal sensory system should combine prior knowledge and observation, by providing mechanistic interpretation of the dynamic functioning of the brain circuit, and by suggesting optimal ways of deciphering experimental data. This book brings together contributions from both experimental and theoretical neuroscientists that examine the brain mechanisms of perception, decision making, and motor control according to the concepts of Bayesian estimation. After an overview of the mathematical concepts, including Bayes theorem, that are basic to understanding the approaches discussed, contributors discuss how Bayesian concepts can be used for interpretation of such neurobiological data as neural spikes and functional brain imaging. Next, they examine the modeling of sensory processing, including the neural coding of information about the outside world, and finally, they explore dynamic processes for proper behaviors, including the mathematics of the speed and accuracy of perceptual decisions and neural models of belief propagation.

The hippocampus is one of the most studied structures in the human brain and plays a pivotal role in human memory function. It's recognized function is reflected by the presence of an extensive body of neurophysiological, neuropsychological, anatomical, and neurocomputational literature that presents basic mechanisms, theoretical models, and psychological concepts. However, in the rapidly growing field of hippocampal research, the clinical aspects of diseases that affect the hippocampus are greatly under-represented, and clinical approaches and concepts are scattered throughout various clinical and basic scientific disciplines. This book explores clinical approaches to the range of diseases that affect the hippocampus. It brings together and reviews the common methods, clinical findings, concepts, mechanisms and, where applicable, therapeutic strategies for these clinical approaches. The clinical spectrum of hippocampal dysfunction encompasses a wide range of neurological, behavioural, and psychiatric symptoms and surpasses the ability to encode, store, and retrieve information. The relevance of hippocampal involvement in clinical diseases goes beyond mere neuropsychological deficits and includes psychopathological states in various conditions, such as acute amnesic syndromes, Alzheimer's disease, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), sleep, stroke medicine, limbic encephalitis, neurodevelopmental disorders, stress- and trauma-related disorders, depression, and schizophrenia.

During the First World War many soldiers suffered brain injuries, mostly from gunshot wounds. The localized nature of these injuries made them of special significance for neuropsychological studies and they were the subject of research by British and German psychologists and neurologists working in military hospitals. The work carried out by Walther Poppelreuter in Germany is of particular interest. He was one of the first to design and use precise experimental methods for neuropsychological assessment and analysis. Poppelreuter was also one of the first to suggest a relatively specific processing of visual submodalities such as movement, depth, form, and colour in the prestriate areas. Much of his practical advice on the management of patients is still of value. Anyone concerned with brain injuries, especially of the occipital lobe, can still benefit from his contribution. This translation makes this classic now available to a wider audience.

Dyslexia research has made dramatic progress since the mid-1980s. Once discounted as a “middle-class myth,” dyslexia is now the subject of a complex—and confusing—body of theoretical and empirical research. This book provides a uniquely broad and coherent analysis of dyslexia theory. Unlike most dyslexia research, which addresses the question “what is the cause of the reading disability called dyslexia?” the work presented here addressed the deeper question of “what is the cause of the learning disability that manifests as reading problems?” This perspective allows the text to place dyslexia research within the much broader disciplines of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience and has led to a rich framework, including two established leading theories, the automatization deficit account (1990) and the cerebellar deficit hypothesis (2001). The chapters in this book show that extensive evidence has accumulated to support these two theories and that they may be seen as subsuming the established phonological deficit account and sensory processing accounts. Moving to the explanatory level of neural systems, they argue that all these disorders reflect problems in some component of the procedural learning system, a multi-region system including major components of cortical and subcortical regions. The authors’ answer to the fundamental question “what is dyslexia?” offers a challenge and motivation for research throughout the learning disabilities, laying the foundations for future progress.

Epilepsy is one of the most common disorders of the brain, and these patients often suffer from memory problems. There are a number of reasons for this: seizures can directly affect the brain in ways that disturb memory; epilepsy often results from trouble in brain regions closely linked to memory; the treatment of epilepsy can affect memory; epilepsy can cause psychological problems, like depression, which interfere with memory. This book reviews all aspects of the relationship between this common and potentially serious neurological disorder and memory, one of the core functions of the human mind. The chapters review the history of the subject; the clinical features of memory disorder in epilepsy; neuropsychological, neuroradiological, neuropathological, and electrophysiological findings; the roles of anticonvulsant side effects and psychiatric disorder; and the scope for memory support and rehabilitation. The study of patients with epilepsy has revealed much about the workings of memory, yet there has been no recent review of this field of research. This book aims to this gap.

This book studies the organization of the white matter pathways of the brain. The book analyzes and synthesizes the corticocortical and corticosubcortical connections of the major areas of the cerebral cortex in the rhesus monkey. The result is a detailed understanding of the constituents of the cerebral white matter and the organization of the fiber tracts. The findings from the thirty-six cases studied are presented on a single template brain, facilitating comparison of the locations of the different fiber pathways. The summary diagrams provide a comprehensive atlas of the cerebral white matter. The text is enriched by close attention to functional aspects of anatomical observations. The clinical relevance of the pathways is addressed throughout the text and a chapter is devoted to human white matter diseases. The introductory account gives a detailed historical background. Translations of seminal original observations by early investigators are presented, and when these are considered in the light of the authors' new observations, many longstanding conflicts and debates are resolved.

With the advent of methods from behavioral genetics, molecular biology, and cognitive neuroscience, affective science has recently started to approach genetic influences on emotion, and the underlying intermediate neural mechanisms through which genes and experience shape emotion. The aim of this volume is to offer a comprehensive account of current research in the genetics of emotion, written by leading researchers, with extensive sections focused on methods, intermediate phenotypes, and clinical and translational work. Major methodological approaches are reviewed in the first section, including the two traditional “workhorses” in the field, twin studies and gene–environment interaction studies, and the more recently developed epigenetic modification assays, genome-wide association studies, and optogenetic methods. Parts 2 and 3 focus on a variety of psychological (e.g. fear conditioning, emotional action control, emotion regulation, emotional memory, decision-making) and biological (e.g. neural activity assessed using functional neuroimaging, electroencephalography, and psychophysiological methods; telomere length) mechanisms, respectively, that may be viewed as intermediate phenotypes in the pathways between genes and emotional experience. Part 4 concentrates on the genetics of emotional dysregulation in neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder, Tourette’s syndrome), including factors contributing to the risk and persistence of these disorders (e.g. child maltreatment, personality, emotional resilience, impulsivity). In addition, two chapters in Part 4 review genetic influences on the response to psychotherapy (i.e. therapygenetics) and pharmacological interventions (i.e. pharmacogenetics) in anxiety and affective disorders.

This book provides an atlas of the normal human brain based on three dimensional reconstructions of magnetic resonance scans obtained in normal living adults as well as neurological patients with focal brain lesions. It provides detailed descriptions of sulci and gyri and illustrates how they appear in different brains. The book shows how different slice orientations obtained in the same brain produce different images that can be anatomically misinterpreted, in normal brains as well as brains with lesions. The book also addresses quantitative differences between the human brain and the brains of apes; gray and white matter differences between the hemispheres; and differences related to gender, age, and congenital deafness.

This volume provides up-to-date information concerning new applications of brain imaging to the study of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The chapters, written by experts in this field, focus on the various imaging methodologies that have recently been used to study the natural history of the disease with emphasis on each of the distinctive clinical features that characterize the disorder (e.g., bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor and gait disturbance). Individual chapters also address the role of imaging in differential diagnosis, and in the evaluation of cognitive dysfunction/dementia in parkinsonian patients. Considerable emphasis is placed on potential applications of neuroimaging in clinical trials to assess new pharmacologic and surgical treatment strategies for PD, including deep brain stimulation (DBS), cell transplantation, and gene therapy. In-depth discussion is provided on advanced imaging applications, including rest-state and activation fMRI, volumetric MR, PET assessment of dopaminergic and cholinergic neurotransmission, and echosonography. Additional topics cover recent developments in the use of brain imaging to assess disease mechanisms including neuroinflammation, protein aggregation, and disordered brain network organization in PD.

This new edition covers advances in understanding immunological and inflammatory responses in the nervous system, research driven by the potential to use knowledge of the molecules and mechanisms involved to intervene in, and arrest, neurodegenerative disease processes. This book covers developmental aspects of immune/inflammatory responses in the central nervous system (CNS), basic aspects of glial function, as well as inflammatory mediators, their mechanisms of action, clinical importance, and sites of infection. There is also coverage of the major diseases of the CNS, including stroke, brain injury, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease. Throughout, the focus is on the underlying basic neuroscience, clinical relevance, and the potential for therapeutic interventions. The book will be useful for improving the diagnosis of neuroimmune diseases and determining therapeutic measures.

This new edition covers recent advances in understanding immunological and inflammatory responses in the nervous system, research driven by the potential to use knowledge of the molecules and mechanisms involved to intervene in, and arrest, neurodegenerative disease processes. This book covers developmental aspects of immune/inflammatory responses in the CNS and basic aspects of glial function, as well as inflammatory mediators and their mechanisms of action, clinical importance, and sites of infection. There is also coverage of the major diseases of the CNS, including stroke, brain injury, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease. Throughout, the focus is on the underlying basic neuroscience, clinical relevance and the potential for therapeutic interventions. This book aims to contribute to the understanding and improving of the diagnosis of neuroimmune diseases and determining therapeutic measures.

Key thoughts leaders and practitioners in personalized medicine distil its current status, future directions, and recommendation for successful implementation of for brain disorders. This text is a summary of the “science to patient” continuum in and integrative neuroscience. Included are measures of genes using whole genome approaches and SNIPS, as well as BRAINmarkers of direct brain function such as brain imaging, biophysical changes and objective cognitive and behavioral measurements. The chapters provide a review of relevant literature; show the personalized diagnostic and treatment prediction solutions for patient care achieved through integrative neuroscience, providing a practical guide. This book provides a summary of the key translations from laboratory discoveries to patient and reimbursement issues, in personalized medicine.

Lysosomal storage diseases are inherited metabolic disorders characterized by severe pathology, typically involving the brain. Although individually rare, they collectively represent a significant group of diseases that primarily present in early infancy or childhood. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the molecular mechanisms that lead to disordered function of the lysosomal system and to lysosomal storage. Unravelling the basis for these diseases is providing unique insight into the normal biology of cells and pointing the way to the development of therapeutic strategies for their treatment. This book details recent advances in the molecular and cellular pathologies of these diseases and in the development of effective therapies. After an overview of the biology of the endosomal-lysosomal system and the types of diseases resulting from defects in this system, the book describes in detail the molecular mechanisms of storage, model systems and pathophysiological mechanisms, and finally, new advances toward treatment.

Thirty per cent of all women and ten per cent of all men experience migraine. This crippling illness does not kill, but its high morbidity poses a massive economic problem and gives rise to considerable suffering. Its main manifestation, headache, is subjective, and there are no animal models. This makes traditional research approaches difficult, and has led to a variety of research strategies. Chapters here present the numerous advances that have been made over the past two decades in our understanding of this disorder, and discuss in depth the position of migraine research today and the directions it will take in the future.

This book details the basic biology and function of glial cells. It covers the entire field of glial research from the basic molecular and cellular properties of these cells to their involvement in neurological diseases including stroke, Alzheimer's Disease, and multiple sclerosis. This edition includes new chapters on transmitter release by extocytosis from glia, glia derived stem cells, glia synaptic transmission, glia and axon guidance, an entirely new section on mechanisms of glial injury, and several new chapters on the roles of glia in different diseases. It covers the fields of neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neurophysiology, molecular neurobiology, neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, neuropathology, neuro-oncology, and physiatry.

Perhaps the most important achievements in the field of epileptology in the past two decades have been in the neuroimaging and genetic breakthroughs as applied to patients with epilepsy. Indeed, neuroimaging has become a vital part in the study of epilepsy, affecting broad aspects of the disorder ranging from diagnosis and classification to treatment and prognosis. Neuroimaging in epilepsy encompasses many different approaches that have reached various levels of expertise across epilepsy centers worldwide. This book discusses every imaging modality used to gather information on epilepsy. Each technique is described by world experts and epilespy centers worldwide.

The brain has a remarkable ability to adapt in the event of damage — in many cases shifting responsibility for specific cognitive functions to other non-damaged brain regions. This ‘plasticity’ can be crucial in aiding recovery from stroke, trauma, and peripheral damage such as eye or ear damage. Over the past thirty years our view of cortical plasticity has evolved greatly. Early studies suggested that changes to cortical function due to peripheral lesions could only occur during development and that these plastic changes were specific to a particular temporal window or ‘critical period’. Over time, it has been demonstrated that cortical modifications as a consequence of either peripheral or central lesions can induce adaptive, or beneficial, changes in cortical function in an effort to preserve or enhance function. More recently, studies have identified that many of these adaptive changes, once thought only possible in the developing brain, are also possible in the mature or developed brain. At present, many laboratories are defining the beneficial capabilities of cerebral cortex plasticity, upon which many proactive and therapeutic strategies may be developed in order to maximise the ‘reprogramming’ capabilities of the cerebrum. This book describes these exciting studies and examines adaptive cortical plasticity in a variety of systems (visual, auditory, somatomotor, cross-modal, language, and cognition).

Following injury or disease, neural circuitry can be altered to varying degrees leading to highly individualized characteristics that may or may not resemble original function. In addition, lost or partially damaged circuits and the effects of biological recovery processes coupled with learned compensatory strategies create a new neuroanatomy with capabilities that are often not functional or may interfere with daily life. To date, the majority of approaches used to treat neurological dysfunction have focused on the replacement of lost or damaged function, usually through the suppression of surviving neural activity and the application of mechanical assistive devices. This book offers a different and novel approach. Focusing on the spinal cord and its role in motor control, it details the clinical and neurophysiological assessment process and methods developed throughout the past half century by basic and clinical scientists. Then, through the use of specialized clinical and neurophysiological testing methods, conduction and processing performed within the surviving neural circuitry is examined and characterized in detail. Based on the results of such assessment, treatment strategies, also described in this book, are applied to augment, rather than replace, the performance of surviving neural circuitry and improve the functional capacity of people who have experienced injury to their spinal cords.

This is the second in a series of books dealing with the enormous clinical problem of spinal-cord dysfunction. Volume I discussed assessment; this book focuses on intervention. There are three main approaches to the restoration of function after damage to the spinal cord: the prevention of secondary pathological events; the identification of impaired or absent functions in nerve cells and processes that survive the initial insult; and restoration of severed neuronal connections. This book addresses the first two of these approaches. It contains a discussion of the arguments about early decompression of the spinal cord following injury, therapy of acute spinal injury, and the effects of early treatment and local cooling on spinal-cord blood flow. The management of specific problems associated with spinal-cord dysfunction is addressed; these problems include cardiovascular abnormalities due to autonomic dysfunction, bladder control, pain, and sexual function. Current procedures of rehabilitation (particularly the management of chronic problems and the treatment of complications) are summarized, and ideas on motor control and learning are discussed.