The origins of this book go back to the first electron microscopic studies of the central nervous system. The cerebellar cortex was from the first an object of close study in the electron microscope, repeating in modern cytology and neuroanatomy the role it had in the hands of RAMON y CAJAL at the end of the nineteenth century. The senior author vividly remembers a day early in 1953 when GEORGE PALADE, with whom he was then working, showed him an electron micrograph of a cerebellar glomerulus, saying "That is what the synapse should look like. " It is true that the tissue was swollen and the mitochondria were exploded, but all of the essentials of synaptic structure were visible. At that time small fragments of tissue, fixed by immersion in osmium tetroxide and embedded in methacrylate, were laboriously sectioned with glass knives without any predetermined orientation and then examined in the electron microscope. After much searching, favorably preserved areas' were studied at the cytological level in order to recognize the parts of neurons and characterize them. Such procedures, dependent upon random sections and uncontrollable selection by a highly erratic technique of preservation, precluded any systematic investigation of the organization of a particular nucleus or region of the central nervous system. It was difficult enough to distinguish neurons from the neuroglia.

Progress in Brain Research is the most acclaimed and accomplished series in neuroscience, firmly established as an extensive documentation of the advances in contemporary brain research. The volumes, some of which are derived from important international symposia, contain authoritative reviews and original articles by invited specialists. The rigorous editing of the volumes assures that they will appeal to all laboratory and clinical brain research workers in the various disciplines: neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, neuroendocrinology, neuropathology, basic neurology, biological psychiatry, and the behavioral sciences. This volume, The Cerebellum and Memory Formation: Structure, Computation and Function, covers topics including feedback control of cerebellar learning; cortico-cerebellar organization and skill acquisition; cerebellar plasticity and learning in the oculomotor system, and more. - Leading authors review the state-of-the-art in their field of investigation, and provide their views and perspectives for future research - The volume reflects current thinking about the ways in which the cerebellum can engage in learning, and the contributors come from a variety of research fields - The chapters express perspectives from different levels of analysis that range from molecular and cellular mechanisms through to long-range systems that allow the cerebellum to communicate with other brain areas

The Linguistic Cerebellum provides a comprehensive analysis of this unique part of the brain that has the most number of neurons, each operating in distinct networks to perform diverse functions. This book outlines how those distinct networks operate in relation to non-motor language skills. Coverage includes cerebellar anatomy and function in relation to speech perception, speech planning, verbal fluency, grammar processing, and reading and writing, along with a discussion of language disorders. - Discusses the neurobiology of cerebellar language functions, encompassing both normal language function and language disorders - Includes speech perception, processing, and planning - Contains cerebellar function in reading and writing - Explores how language networks give insight to function elsewhere in the brain

The Cerebellum and Cognition pulls together a preeminent group of authors. The cerebellum has been previously considered as a highly complex structure involved only with motor control. The cerebellum is essential to nonmotor functions, and recent research has revealed new medically important roles of the cerebellum and cognitive processes. - Selected for inclusion in Doody's Core Titles 2013, an essential collection development tool for health sciences libraries - Comprehensive coverage of cerebellum in motor control and cognition - New developments regarding the cerebellum and motor systems - Therapeutic implications of cerebellar contributions to cognition - Preeminent group of contributors

This e-book will review special features of the cerebral circulation and how they contribute to the physiology of the brain. It describes structural and functional properties of the cerebral circulation that are unique to the brain, an organ with high metabolic demands and the need for tight water and ion homeostasis. Autoregulation is pronounced in the brain, with myogenic, metabolic and neurogenic mechanisms contributing to maintain relatively constant blood flow during both increases and decreases in pressure. In addition, unlike peripheral organs where the majority of vascular resistance resides in small arteries and arterioles, large extracranial and intracranial arteries contribute significantly to vascular resistance in the brain. The prominent role of large arteries in cerebrovascular resistance helps maintain blood flow and protect downstream vessels during changes in perfusion pressure. The cerebral endothelium is also unique in that its barrier properties are in some way more like epithelium than endothelium in the periphery. The cerebral endothelium, known as the blood-brain barrier, has specialized tight junctions that do not allow ions to pass freely and has very low hydraulic conductivity and transcellular transport. This special configuration modifies Starling's forces in the brain microcirculation such that ions retained in the vascular lumen oppose water movement due to hydrostatic pressure. Tight water regulation is necessary in the brain because it has limited capacity for expansion within the skull. Increased intracranial pressure due to vasogenic edema can cause severe neurologic complications and death.

Recent physiologic investigations have shown that the deep cerebellar nuclei may play an important role in the initiation and monitoring of skilled move ments. Much of this physiologic work has been carried out in the absence of a secure foundation in neuroanatomical information. Although the main sources of the afferent fibers and the major terminations of the efferent fibers related to these nuclei have been known for many years, remarkably little information about the organization of the nuclei themselves has been collected. The kinds of nerve cells, their arrangement within the nuclei, the patterns of their dendritic arborizations, the distribution of incoming fibers among the neurons, the relationship between the outgoing nerve fibers and the nerve cells from which they originate - these and many other morphologic features were either unknown or only superficially explored. In fact, so little was known about the deep cerebellar nuclei when I began to work on this subject that the investigations reported here are virtually without antecedents, a refreshing change from the cerebellar cortex which has been repeatedly and exhaustively surveyed. My studies on the cerebellar nuclei began in the spring of 1972. They were initiated with the intent of applying the principles of analysis that had been developed for the cerebellar cortex to a different but related part of the brain.

The Parietal Lobe, Volume 151, the latest release from the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series, provides a foundation on the neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and clinical neurology/neuropsychology of the parietal lobe that is not only applicable to both basic researchers and clinicians, but also to students and specialists who are interested in learning more about disorders brought on by damage or dysfunction. Topics encompass the evolution, anatomy, connections, and neurophysiology, the major neurological and neuropsychological deficits and syndromes caused by damage, the potential for improvement via transcranial stimulation, and the role of the parietal in the cerebral networks for perception and action. - Provides a broad overview of the neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and clinical neurology of this region of the cortex - Offers additional insights regarding the role of the parietal in the cerebral networks for perception and action - Addresses the most frequent complications associated with damage, including somatosensory, perceptual, language, and memory, deficits, pain, optic ataxia, spatial neglect, apraxia, and more - Edited work with chapters authored by global leaders in the field - Presents the broadest, most expert coverage available