Cortical Function: a View from the Thalamus

Cortical Function: a View from the Thalamus PDF Author: V. A. Casagrande
Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing
ISBN: 9780444516794
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Almost all of the messages that are received by the cerebral cortex from the environment or from the body's internal receptors come through the thalamus and much current thought about perceptual processing is based on sensory pathways that relay in the thalamus. This volume focuses on three major areas: the role of thalamocortical communication in cognition and attention; the role of the thalamus in communication between cortical areas; the hypothesis that much or all of the information relayed by thalamus, even to classical, pure "sensory" areas of cortex, represents a corollary message being sent simultaneously to motor centers. It presents a broad overview of important recent advances in these areas. * Provides a look at brain structures involved in perception and action * Includes summaries by leading investigators in the field * Presents recent advances in our understanding of brain functions

Cortical Function: a View from the Thalamus

Cortical Function: a View from the Thalamus PDF Author: V. A. Casagrande
Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing
ISBN: 9780444516794
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Almost all of the messages that are received by the cerebral cortex from the environment or from the body's internal receptors come through the thalamus and much current thought about perceptual processing is based on sensory pathways that relay in the thalamus. This volume focuses on three major areas: the role of thalamocortical communication in cognition and attention; the role of the thalamus in communication between cortical areas; the hypothesis that much or all of the information relayed by thalamus, even to classical, pure "sensory" areas of cortex, represents a corollary message being sent simultaneously to motor centers. It presents a broad overview of important recent advances in these areas. * Provides a look at brain structures involved in perception and action * Includes summaries by leading investigators in the field * Presents recent advances in our understanding of brain functions

Functional Connections of Cortical Areas

Functional Connections of Cortical Areas PDF Author: S. Murray Sherman
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262315009
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Two leading authorities on thalamocortical connections consider how the neural circuits of the brain relate to our actions and perceptions. In this book, two leading authorities on the thalamus and its relationship to cortex build on their earlier findings to arrive at new ways of thinking about how the brain relates to the world, to cognition, and behavior. Based on foundations established earlier in their book Exploring the Thalamus and Its Role in Cortical Function, the authors consider the implications of these ground rules for thalamic inputs, thalamocortical connections, and cortical outputs. The authors argue that functional and structural analyses of pathways connecting thalamus and cortex point beyond these to lower centers and through them to the body and the world. Each cortical area depends on the messages linking it to body and world. These messages relate to the way we act and think; each cortical area receives thalamic inputs and has outputs to motor centers. Sherman and Guillery go on to discuss such topics as the role of branching axons that carry motor instructions as well as copies of these motor instructions for relay to cortex under the control of the thalamic gate. This gate allows the thalamus to control the passage of information on the basis of which cortex relates to the rest of the nervous system.

Exploring the Thalamus

Exploring the Thalamus PDF Author: S. Murray Sherman
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 9780080531489
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The thalamus is a group of cells placed centrally in the brain that serve a critical role in controlling how both sensory and motor signals are passed from one part of the cerebral cortex to another. Essentially, all information reaching the cerebral cortex and thus consciousness is relayed through the thalamus. The role of the thalamus in controlling the flow of information (such as visual, auditory, and motor) to the cortex has only recently begun to be understood. This book provides an in-depth look at the function of the thalamus and its role as relayer of information to the cerebral cortex. The authors explore how the thalamus controls messages that are passed to the cortex and they introduce the novel suggestion that the thalamus serves a critical role in controlling how messages pass from one part of the cortex to another. Exploring the Thalamus is a comprehensive, up-to-date reference for researchers. It discusses problems concerning the function and structure of the thalamus and concludes each chapter with thought-provoking questions regarding future research. Focuses on thalamocortical interrelationships Discusses important problems concerning the function and structure of the thalamus Concludes each chapter with thought-provoking questions requiring future research

Exploring the Thalamus and Its Role in Cortical Function

Exploring the Thalamus and Its Role in Cortical Function PDF Author: S. Murray Sherman
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN: 9780262195324
Category : Higher nervous activity
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The thalamus plays a critical role in perceptual processing, but many questions remain about what thalamic activities contribute to sensory and motor functions. In this book, two pioneers in research on the thalamus examine the close two-way relationships between thalamus and cerebral cortex and look at the distinctive functions of the links between the thalamus and the rest of the brain. Countering the dominant "corticocentric" approach to understanding the cerebral cortex—which does not recognize that all neocortical areas receive important inputs from the thalamus and send outputs to lower motor centers—S. Murray Sherman and R. W. Guillery argue for a reappraisal of the way we think about the cortex and its interactions with the rest of the brain. The book defines some of the functional categories critical to understanding thalamic functions, including the distinctions between drivers (pathways that carry messages to the cortex) and modulators (which can change the pattern of transmission) and between first-order and higher-order thalamic relays—the former receiving ascending drivers and the latter receiving cortical drivers. This second edition further develops these distinctions with expanded emphasis throughout the book on the role of the thalamus in cortical function. An important new chapter suggests a structural basis for linking perception and action, supplying supporting evidence for a link often overlooked in current views of perceptual processing.

Thalamic Function - Beyond a Simple Relay

Thalamic Function - Beyond a Simple Relay PDF Author: Vincenzo Crunelli
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889198421
Category : Electronic book
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
The thalamus is often described as a relay. Typified by sensory pathways, this concept leads to thalamic nuclei being viewed as areas that passively streams information from a single source to the cortex, without affecting the nature of that information. However, diverse intrathalamic connections, the varying synaptic and membrane properties of thalamic neurons and the large number of inputs from non-sensory sources make the idea that the thalamus is just a passive relay unlikely. Furthermore, a large number of thalamic nuclei are not primarily driven by sensory signals nor do they exclusively target the cortex, meaning the thalamus must do more than simply pass sensory signals to the cortex. Finally, there is a wealth of research demonstrating that the thalamus does indeed function in ways that are not captured by the concept of a simple relay. So why, given all of this, is the primary paradigm for describing the thalamus, a relay? This Research Topic covers original research, reviews and hypotheses on thalamic function that explore the concept that the thalamus performs computational tasks other than simply passively relaying information.

Discovering the Brain

Discovering the Brain PDF Author: National Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309045290
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."

Exploring Thalamocortical Interactions

Exploring Thalamocortical Interactions PDF Author: S. Murray Sherman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019750387X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
CELL TYPES IN THE THALAMUS AND CORTEX -- INTRINSIC MEMBRANE PROPERTIES -- SYNAPTIC PROPERTIES -- GLUTAMATERGIC DRIVERS AND MODULATORS -- FIRST AND HIGHER ORDER THALAMIC RELAYS -- THALAMIC CIRCUITRY -- BRIEF OVERVIEW OF CORTICAL ORGANIZATION -- CLASSIFICATION OF THALAMOCORTICAL AND CORTICOTHALAMIC MOTIFS -- SPIKE TIMING AND THALAMOCORTICAL INTERACTIONS -- PARALLEL PROCESSING OF SENSORY SIGNALS TO CORTEX -- THALAMOCORTICAL SUBSTRATES OF ATTENTION -- CORTICOTHALAMIC CIRCUITS LINKING SENSATION AND ACTION.

Thalamus And Its Cortex

Thalamus And Its Cortex PDF Author: Edison K. Miyawaki M.D.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1664154388
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
Imagine a seminar in which four smart people address the significance of a deep and central brain structure, the thalamus, in its relationship to the overlying cerebral cortex. Among the four, we hear from an economist, a mathematician, and two scientists. For medical or neuroscience students, or for trainees in neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, Edison K. Miyawaki describes relevant thalamocortical anatomy in humans and other vertebrates. He summarizes known thalamocortical connections in their rich complexity. Thalamus and its Cortex is an experiment in teaching replete with old (but still good) and contemporary insights about the relationship between cortex and subcortex.

Cerebral Cortex

Cerebral Cortex PDF Author: Edward G. Jones
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461566169
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
Volume 6 of Cerebral Cortex is in some respects a continuation of Volume 2, which dealt with the functional aspects of cortical neurons from the physiological and pharmacological points of view. In the current volume, chapters are devoted to the catecholamines, which for a number of reasons were not represented in the earlier volume, and to acetylcholine and the neuropeptides, about which much new information has recently appeared. Volume 6 deals in part with the structure and function of cholinergic and catecholaminergic neuronal systems in the cerebral cortex and with new aspects of the cortical peptidergic neurons, notably the almost universal propensity of the known cortical peptides for being colocalized with classical transmitters and with one another. It thus completes our coverage of the major cortical neuro transmitter and neuromodulatory systems. Other chapters in this volume deal with data pertaining to the proportions of different types of cells and synapses in the neocortex and the physiology of the cortical neuroglial cells. These latter are topics that rarely receive separate treatment and the current chapters serve again to continue discussions of subjects that were introduced in Volume 2. The previous volumes have all been devoted to the neocortex but the present one introduces the subject of the archicortex. To this end, separate chapters are devoted to the physiology and anatomy of the hippocampal formation.

Beyond Evolutionary Psychology

Beyond Evolutionary Psychology PDF Author: George Ellis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107053684
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
This book presents a compelling unifying theory of which aspects of the brain are innate and which are not.