Imaging Of The Human Brain In Health And Disease

Brain imaging technology remains at the forefront of advances in both our understanding of the brain and our ability to diagnose and treat brain disease and disorders. Imaging of the Human Brain in Health and Disease examines the localization of neurotransmitter receptors in the nervous system of normal, healthy humans and compares that with humans who are suffering from various neurologic diseases. Opening chapters introduce the basic science of imaging neurotransmitters, including sigma, acetylcholine, opioid, and dopamine receptors. Imaging the healthy and diseased brain includes brain imaging of anger, pain, autism, the release of dopamine, the impact of cannabinoids, and Alzheimer's disease. This book is a valuable companion to a wide range of scholars, students, and researchers in neuroscience, clinical neurology, and psychiatry, and provides a detailed introduction to the application of advanced imaging to the treatment of brain disorders and disease. A focused introduction to imaging healthy and diseased brains Focuses on the primary neurotransmitter release Includes sigma, acetylcholine, opioid, and dopamine receptors Presents the imaging of healthy and diseased brains via anger, pain, autism, and Alzheimer's disease

This volume highlights the remarkable new developments in brain imaging, including those that apply magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET), that allow us to non invasively study the living human brain in health and in disease. These technological advances have allowed us to obtain new and powerful insights into the structure and function of the healthy brain as it develops across the life cycle, as well as the molecular make up of brain systems and circuits as they develop and change with age. New brain imaging technologies have also given us new insights into the causes of many common brain disorders, including ADHD, schizophrenia, depression and Alzheimer’s disease, which collectively affect a large segment of the population. These new insights have major implications for understanding and treating these brain disorders, and are providing clinicians with the first ever set of biomarkers that can be used to guide diagnosis and monitor treatment effects. The advances in brain imaging over the last 20 years, summarized in this volume, represent a major advance in modern biomedical sciences.

One of the Most Rapidly Advancing Fields in Modern Neuroscience The success of molecular biology and the new tools derived from molecular genetics have revolutionized pain research and its translation to therapeutic effectiveness. Bringing together recent advances in modern neuroscience regarding genetic studies in mice and humans and the practicality of clinical trials, Translational Pain Research: From Mouse to Man effectively bridges the gap between basic research and patient care by humanely examining rodent models for pain associated with bone cancer, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and cardiac episodes. Distinguished Team of International Contributors In addition to addressing the groundbreaking technical advances in tract tracing, endocannabinoids, cannabis, gene therapy, siRNA gene studies, and the role of glia, cytokines, P2X receptors and ATP, this book also presents cutting-edge information on: Nociceptor sensitization Muscle nociceptors and metabolite detection Visceral afferents in disease Innovative rodent model for bone cancer pain Highly specific receptor cloning Modular molecular mechanisms relevant to painful neuropathies This sharply focused work also discusses unexpected discoveries derived from brain-imaging studies related to thalamic pain. Translational Pain Research covers the progress made toward bringing laboratory science (much of it at the molecular level) to our understanding of pain phenomena in humans, with the ultimate goal of reducing the suffering that often accompanies pain and its indirect consequences.

The brain is the most complex computational device we know, consisting of highly interacting and redundant networks of areas, supporting specific brain functions. The rules by which these areas organize themselves to perform specific computations have only now started to be uncovered. Advances in non-invasive neuroimaging technologies have revolutionized our understanding of the functional anatomy of cortical circuits in health and disease states, which is the focus of this book. The first section of this book focuses on methodological issues, such as combining functional MRI technology with other brain imaging modalities. The second section examines the application of brain neuroimaging to understand cognitive, visual, auditory, motor and decision-making networks, as well as neurological diseases. The use of non-invasive neuroimaging technologies will continue to stimulate an exponential growth in understanding basic brain processes, largely as a result of sustained advances in neuroimaging methods and applications.

The human brain is incredibly complex, and the more we learn about it, the more we realize how much we need a truly interdisciplinary team to make sense of its intricacies. This eBook presents the latest efforts in collaborative team science from around the world, all aimed at understanding the human brain.

This book is designed to acquaint serious students, scientists, and clinicians with magnetic source imaging (MSI)--a brain imaging technique of proven importance that promises even more important advances. The technique permits spatial resolution of neural events on a scale measured in millimeters and temporal resolution measured in milliseconds. Although widely mentioned in literature dealing with cognitive neuroscience and functional brain imaging, there is no single book describing both the foundations and actual methods of magnetoencephalopgraphy and its underlying science, neuromagnetism. This volume fills a long-standing need, as it is accessible to scientists and students having no special background in the field, and makes it possible for them to understand this literature and undertake their own research. A self-contained unit, this book covers MSI from beginning to end, including its relationship to allied technologies, such as electroencephalography and modern functional imaging modalities. In addition, the book: *introduces the field to the non-specialist, providing a framework for the rest of the book; *provides a thorough review of the physiological basis of MSI; *describes the mathematical bases of MSI--the forward and inverse problems; *outlines new signal processing methods that extract information from single-trial MEG; *depicts the early, as well as the most recent versions of MSI technology; *compares MSI with other imaging methodologies; *describes new paradigms and analysis techniques in applying MSI to study human perception and cognition, which are also applicable to EEG; and *reviews some of the most important results in MSI from the most prominent researchers and laboratories around the world.

Functional Brain Imaging

The study of brain function is one of the most fascinating pursuits of m- ern science. Functional neuroimaging is an important component of much of the current research in cognitive, clinical, and social psychology. The exci- ment of studying the brain is recognized in both the popular press and the scienti?c community. In the pages of mainstream publications, including The New York Times and Wired, readers can learn about cutting-edge research into topics such as understanding how customers react to products and - vertisements (“If your brain has a ‘buy button,’ what pushes it?”, The New York Times,October19,2004),howviewersrespondtocampaignads(“Using M. R. I. ’s to see politics on the brain,” The New York Times, April 20, 2004; “This is your brain on Hillary: Political neuroscience hits new low,” Wired, November 12,2007),howmen and womenreactto sexualstimulation (“Brain scans arouse researchers,”Wired, April 19, 2004), distinguishing lies from the truth (“Duped,” The New Yorker, July 2, 2007; “Woman convicted of child abuse hopes fMRI can prove her innocence,” Wired, November 5, 2007), and even what separates “cool” people from “nerds” (“If you secretly like Michael Bolton, we’ll know,” Wired, October 2004). Reports on pathologies such as autism, in which neuroimaging plays a large role, are also common (for - stance, a Time magazine cover story from May 6, 2002, entitled “Inside the world of autism”).