"Brain XP: Living with Mental Illness, A young Teenager's Perspective" is the personal, unashamed, and brave story of Christine Frey. In her own teenage writing style, Christine describes her struggle with early onset psychosis. The terrible symptoms of psychosis, including hallucinations and delusions, began when Christine was twelve years old. In her personal account of life lived with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, Christine ensures that the reader will fully grasp the true meaning of mental illness and its impact on the emerging sense of self of a teenager or young adult. In writing this book at age 16, Christine demonstrates a strong passion for advocating on behalf of others who have experienced similar brain disorders. She turns her own experience of struggling to understand herself into an example for others to learn from. Through her Brain XP Project, Christine embraces the challenge to educate and lead others to understanding and confronting the brain disorder called "mental illness". Rather than hide, isolate, and feel embarrassed, she tackles stigma head on. "Brain XP" will resonate with young people and is a must read for parents, family members, and friends who are worried about the mental well-being of the teen or young adult in their lives.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Symposium on Brain, Vision and Artificial Intelligence, BVAI 2005, held in Naples, Italy in October 2005. The 48 revised papers presented together with 6 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 80 submissions for inclusion in the book. The papers are addressed to the following main topics and sub-topics: brain basics - neuroanatomy and physiology, development, plasticity and learning, synaptic, neuronic and neural network modelling; natural vision - visual neurosciences, mechanisms and model systems, visual perception, visual cognition; artificial vision - shape perception, shape analysis and recognition, shape understanding; artificial inteligence - hybrid intelligent systems, agents, and cognitive models.

This book provides a state-of-the-art report on our current understanding of aquaporins and the future direction of the field. Aquaporins (AQPs) are a group of water-channel proteins that are specifically permeable to water and other small molecules, such as glycerol and urea. To date thirteen water-channel proteins (AQP0 – AQP12) have been cloned and the mechanisms and physiological functions of water transport across biological membranes have long been the subject of interest. Recent advances in the molecular biology and physiology of water transport have yielded new insights into how and why water moves across cell membranes, and studies on aquaporin knockout mouse models suggest that aquaporins are involved in the development of some diseases and they may be useful targets of research into selective-inhibitor drugs. By focusing on the advances made over the last 30 years in the biophysics, genetics, protein structure, molecular biology, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology of aquaporins in mammalian cell membranes, this book provides novel insights into further mechanisms and the physiological significance of water and some small molecule transport in mammals in order to stimulate further research in new directions. In the second version, fourteen chapters will be updated base on the most recent research articles. Ten new chapters will be added.

Making a successful video game is hard. Even games that are successful at launch may fail to engage and retain players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. The game user experience accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the experience they want to deliver, shipping higher quality games (whether it is an indie game, AAA game, or "serious game"), and meeting their business goals while staying true to their design and artistic intent. In a nutshell, UX is about understanding the gamer’s brain: understanding human capabilities and limitations to anticipate how a game will be perceived, the emotions it will elicit, how players will interact with it, and how engaging the experience will be. This book is designed to equip readers of all levels, from student to professional, with neuroscience knowledge and user experience guidelines and methodologies. These insights will help readers identify the ingredients for successful and engaging video games, empowering them to develop their own unique game recipe more efficiently, while providing a better experience for their audience. Key Features Provides an overview of how the brain learns and processes information by distilling research findings from cognitive science and psychology research in a very accessible way. Topics covered include: "neuromyths", perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning. Includes numerous examples from released games of how scientific knowledge translates into game design, and how to use a UX framework in game development. Describes how UX can guide developers to improve the usability and the level of engagement a game provides to its target audience by using cognitive psychology knowledge, implementing human-computer interaction principles, and applying the scientific method (user research). Provides a practical definition of UX specifically applied to games, with a unique framework. Defines the most relevant pillars for good usability (ease of use) and good "engage-ability" (the ability of the game to be fun and engaging), translated into a practical checklist. Covers design thinking, game user research, game analytics, and UX strategy at both a project and studio level. Offers unique insights from a UX expert and PhD in psychology who has been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. This book is a practical tool that any professional game developer or student can use right away and includes the most complete overview of UX in games existing today.

This collection of nine papers brings together Naoki Fukui’s pioneering body of work on Merge, the basic operation of human language syntax, from the two distinct but related perspectives of theoretical syntax and neurosciences. Part I presents an overview of the development of the theory of Merge and its current formulations in linguistic theory, highlighting the author’s previously published papers in theoretical syntax, while Part II focuses on experimental research on Merge in the brain science of language, demonstrating how new techniques and the results they produce can inform the study of syntactic structures in the brain in the future. By combining insights from theoretical linguistics and neurosciences, this book presents an innovative unified account of the study of Merge and paves new directions for future research for graduate students and scholars in theoretical linguistics, neuroscience, syntax, and cognitive science.

The study of neurotransmitters in the human brain has expanded spectacularly in recent years with the application of techniques from immunology and molecular biology. These techniques are now being used successfully to help decipher the chemical architecture of the human nervous system. The results of these studies are of great importance for the understanding and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, as well as depression and schizophrenia. Professor Istvan Tork was a pioneer in the chemical anatomy of the brain and carried out important studies on the neuroanatomy and distribution of neuropeptides and monoarnines in the brain; some of his best known work dealt with the dual innervation of the cortex by neurons containing serotonin. Istvan Tork died on November 21, 1992, after a long struggle with a temporal lobe glioma, leaving a profound legacy of friendship and scholarly work 1. It was decided by the editors of this volume to commemorate his work and the mentors hip he gave to his many students by convening a symposium on neurotransmitters in the human brain. The symposium was held at the University of New South Wales on February 5, 1994, and was attended by over one hundred participants, including many of Professor Tork's colleagues and students. The papers from this symposium are presented in this volume to stand as a tribute to the breadth and quality of his work and to the energy and achievement of his students.

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