Foundational Issues In Human Brain Mapping

The field of neuroimaging has reached a watershed and critiques and emerging trends are raising foundational issues of methodology, measurement, and theory. Here, scholars reexamine these issues and explore controversies that have arisen in cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, computer science, and signal processing.

This new and significant book concentrates on brain mapping which is a set of neuroscience techniques predicated on the mapping of (biological) quantities or properties onto spatial representations of the (human or non-human) brain resulting in maps. All neuroimaging can be considered part of brain mapping. Brain mapping can be conceived as a higher form of neuroimaging, producing brain images supplemented by the result of additional (imaging or non-imaging) data processing or analysis, such as maps projecting (measures of) behaviour onto brain regions (see fMRI). Brain mapping techniques are constantly evolving, and rely on the development and refinement of image acquisition, representation, analysis, visualisation and interpretation techniques. Functional and structural neuroimaging are at the core of the mapping aspect of brain mapping.

Significant advances in brain research have been made, but investigators who face the resulting explosion of data need new methods to integrate the pieces of the "brain puzzle." Based on the expertise of more than 100 neuroscientists and computer specialists, this new volume examines how computer technology can meet that need. Featuring outstanding color photography, the book presents an overview of the complexity of brain research, which covers the spectrum from human behavior to genetic mechanisms. Advances in vision, substance abuse, pain, and schizophrenia are highlighted. The committee explores the potential benefits of computer graphics, database systems, and communications networks in neuroscience and reviews the available technology. Recommendations center on a proposed Brain Mapping Initiative, with an agenda for implementation and a look at issues such as privacy and accessibility.

This updated second edition provides the state of the art perspective of the theory, practice and application of modern non-invasive imaging methods employed in exploring the structural and functional architecture of the normal and diseased human brain. Like the successful first edition, it is written by members of the Functional Imaging Laboratory - the Wellcome Trust funded London lab that has contributed much to the development of brain imaging methods and their application in the last decade. This book should excite and intrigue anyone interested in the new facts about the brain gained from neuroimaging and also those who wish to participate in this area of brain science. * Represents an almost entirely new book from 1st edition, covering the rapid advances in methods and in understanding of how human brains are organized * Reviews major advances in cognition, perception, emotion and action * Introduces novel experimental designs and analytical techniques made possible with fMRI, including event-related designs and non-linear analysis

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Modern neuroscience is providing profound insights into nature's most mysterious puzzle -- the human brain -- while applications of information and computer science are transforming the way people interact with each other and with the world around them. The new science of neuroinformatics, which sits at the junction, integrates knowledge and promises to catalyze progress in these dynamic and seemingly disparate areas of study. Neuroinformatics research will allow brain and behavioral scientists to make better sense and use of their data through advanced information tools and approaches. These include new ways to acquire, store, visualize, analyze, integrate, synthesize, and share data, as well as the means for electronic scientific collaboration. In this country, the principal source of support for neuroinformatics research is the Human Brain Project. The project, which is led by the National Institute of Mental Health, now supports neuroinformatics research performed by over 60 scientists. This volume presents the findings of the first group of researchers. Their efforts will begin to arm the next generation of brain and behavioral scientists with tools to attack the serious problem of information overload, and ultimately relate their findings to those obtained from different species, levels of biological organization, methods, and laboratories. And the challenges presented by the amount, diversity, and complexity of brain and behavioral data will give informatics researchers the impetus to test and expand the limits of their own science. The work described in this volume signals a change in the way scientists interact with data, instruments and each other, and points the way to a very different and richer future understanding of the human brain and mind.

An interdisciplinary collection considering implications of the current 'neurorevolution'

This outstanding book includes research derived from non-invasive brain imaging modalities used to explore the spatial and temporal organisation of the neural systems supporting human behaviour. Imaging modalities of interest include positron emission tomography, event-related potentials, electro - and magnetoencephalography, magnetic resonance imaging, and single-photon emission tomography. Coverage includes novel brain imaging methods, analyses for detecting or localising neural activity, synergistic uses of multiple imaging modalities, and strategies for the design of behavioural paradigms and neural-systems modelling.