Cerebral Lateralization is Norman Geschwind's last and perhaps most controversial work. Cowritten with Albert M. Galaburda, it presents his bold theory of left-handedness and brain development, exploring as no other current study has done the biology behind cerebral dominance or the specialization of the left and right sides of the brain for different functions.This book, which illustrates and expands material that appeared in three issues of The Archives of Neurology, provides extensive discussions of the anatomical and chemical differences between the hemispheres, their development in fetal life, their evolution, and their relationship to hemispheric function. The various factors that affect brain structure - endocrinological, immunological, and genetic - particularly dominance characteristics in intrauterine life, are fully covered, offering new insights into the nature-nurture question and pointing up the importance of the fetal environment in altering the properties of the brain.Many other intriguing areas are explored - the evidence for anatomical asymmetry during evolution and in other species, the concept of handedness and problems of its assessment, anatomical alterations in the brains of dyslexics, the advantages and disadvantages of cerebral dominance such as the elevated rate of left-handedness in certain highly skilled occupations, its association with childhood learning disorders, immune disease, and twinning. Seyeral sections are devoted to diseases with unilateral predominance in the brain or the body and those associated with particular dominance patterns.The final chapter, which deals with asymmetries in physics and chemistry and their possible relationship to the eventual development of dominance in both humans and other species, shows the importance of asymmetry of the nervous system in probably all animals.Norman Geschwind, M.D. (1926-1984) was James Jackson Putnam Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Neurological Unit, Beth Israel Hospital, and Professor of Psychology at MIT. Albert M. Galaburda, M.D. is Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. A Bradford Book.
Originally published in 1986, this stimulating and unorthodox book integrates the major findings of hemispheric research with the larger questions of how the brain stores and transmits information – the ‘brain code’. Norman Cook emphasizes how the two cerebral hemispheres communicate information over the corpus callosum, the largest single nerve tract of the human brain. Excitatory mechanisms are involved in the duplication of information between the hemispheres; in contrast, inhibitory mechanisms are implicated in the production of hemispheric asymmetries and, crucially, in high-level cognitive phenomena such as the right hemisphere’s role in providing the ‘context’ within which left hemispheric verbal information is placed. These callosal mechanisms of information transfer are not only fundamental to the brain code; they are the simplest and most easily demonstrated ways in which the neocortex ‘talks to itself’. The Brain Code demonstrates how popular topics within psychology at the time, such as laterality, hemisphere differences and the psychology of left and right, are central to further progress in understanding the human brain. This book provides stimulating reading for students of psychology, artificial intelligence and neurophysiology, as well as anyone interested in the broader question of how the brain works.
Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage of progress in the major areas of chemical research. Written by experts in their specialist fields the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, supplying regular critical in-depth accounts of progress in particular areas of chemistry. For over 80 years the Royal Society of Chemistry and its predecessor, the Chemical Society, have been publishing reports charting developments in chemistry, which originally took the form of Annual Reports. However, by 1967 the whole spectrum of chemistry could no longer be contained within one volume and the series Specialist Periodical Reports was born. The Annual Reports themselves still existed but were divided into two, and subsequently three, volumes covering Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry. For more general coverage of the highlights in chemistry they remain a 'must'. Since that time the SPR series has altered according to the fluctuating degree of activity in various fields of chemistry. Some titles have remained unchanged, while others have altered their emphasis along with their titles; some have been combined under a new name whereas others have had to be discontinued. The current list of Specialist Periodical Reports can be seen on the inside flap of this volume.
The third edition of the popular Textbook of Geriatric Neuropsychiatry thoroughly reviews this clinical subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric and behavior disorders in aging patients who display impaired brain function. In this text, world-renowned neuropsychiatrists and neuroscientists provide practical application of the latest research for both experienced clinicians and those new to the study of neuropsychiatry for the elderly. The book provides a comprehensive approach to treatment and contemporary neuroscience: Addresses the reality of an increasing aging population and the accompanying psychosocial changes this brings for patients and caregivers. Focuses on the health care of patients with neuropsychiatric illness. Consolidating the continued explosion of neuroscience research and the understanding of human behavior as it relates to aging. Bridges the fields of geriatric neurology and geriatric psychiatry, emphasizing relationships between neuropsychiatric illness and the aging of the nervous system. Responds to advancements in the study and science of geriatric neuropsychiatry, as well as feedback from past readers and clinicians. Concise and organized for easy reference, the textbook is divided into four parts that disclose clinically relevant information within the context of the very latest in neuroscience research and clinical application, including: Clinical definitions of the essential neuropsychiatric syndromes and disorders commonly seen in the elderly and how these disorders manifest. Emphasis on the principles and special considerations essential for the safe and effective treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders in the elderly. Study of the importance of interactions among aging; psychosocial, family, and neuropharmacological elements; and brain stimulation therapies. In-depth review of the influence of the aging nervous system on the pathophysiology, neuropsychiatric manifestations, clinical course, and prognosis of neurological and psychiatric illness in the elderly. Geriatric neuropsychiatry is an integrative specialty that draws from a diversity of fields including psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, neuropsychopharmacology, gerontology, genetics, and molecular biology, to name a few. Incorporating these perspectives, this text is highly recommended for psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, geriatricians, psychiatric nurses, residents and fellows, and other clinicians interested in the study and treatment of the effects of aging on the brain.
What we know about the world and its opportunities limits what we do. If we do not know that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, we will not follow it. If we do not know that a desert cactus contains water, we will not cut into it for sustenance. Often, however, we do know things about the world and yet the knowledge does not seem to be reflected in behavior. Explaining this fact simply in terms of inadequate motivation for expression or incomplete memory for the important in formation does not really add much to our understanding. The ex pression of knowledge can be interrupted in very special ways by a variety of more specific conditions-fatigue, sources of forgetting that may include failure of memory retrieval, emotion, and various dysfunc tions of brain and body systems-that are not satisfactorily incorporated by any current theories of motivation or memory. Also, a dissociation between knowledge and its expression can take the form of applying knowledge without apparent awareness of this action, a phenomenon that requires complicated assumptions for explanation in terms of either motivation or memory. Dissociations between knowledge and action may be striking. After driving home on a familiar route we may not be able to report whether the last three traffic lights were red or green; yet we must have re sponded appropriately to them.
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