Author: David M. Hunt
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1461443555
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 278
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Book Description
Photopigments are molecules that react to light and mediate a number of processes and behaviours in animals. Visual pigments housed within the photoreceptors of the eye, such as the rods and cones in vertebrates are the best known, however, visual pigments are increasingly being found in other tissues, including other retinal cells, the skin and the brain. Other closely related molecules from the G protein family, such as melanopsin mediate light driven processes including circadian rhythmicity and pupil constriction. This Volume examines the enormous diversity of visual pigments and traces the evolution of these G protein coupled receptors in both invertebrates and vertebrates in the context of the visual and non-visual demands dictated by a species’ ecological niche.
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128054093
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 5215
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Book Description
The Senses: A Comprehensive Reference, Second Edition, Seven Volume Set is a comprehensive reference work covering the range of topics that constitute current knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying the different senses. This important work provides the most up-to-date, cutting-edge, comprehensive reference combining volumes on all major sensory modalities in one set. Offering 264 chapters from a distinguished team of international experts, The Senses lays out current knowledge on the anatomy, physiology, and molecular biology of sensory organs, in a collection of comprehensive chapters spanning 4 volumes. Topics covered include the perception, psychophysics, and higher order processing of sensory information, as well as disorders and new diagnostic and treatment methods. Written for a wide audience, this reference work provides students, scholars, medical doctors, as well as anyone interested in neuroscience, a comprehensive overview of the knowledge accumulated on the function of sense organs, sensory systems, and how the brain processes sensory input. As with the first edition, contributions from leading scholars from around the world will ensure The Senses offers a truly international portrait of sensory physiology. The set is the definitive reference on sensory neuroscience and provides the ultimate entry point into the review and original literature in Sensory Neuroscience enabling students and scientists to delve into the subject and deepen their knowledge. All-inclusive coverage of topics: updated edition offers readers the only current reference available covering neurobiology, physiology, anatomy, and molecular biology of sense organs and the processing of sensory information in the brain Authoritative content: world-leading contributors provide readers with a reputable, dynamic and authoritative account of the topics under discussion Comprehensive-style content: in-depth, complex coverage of topics offers students at upper undergraduate level and above full insight into topics under discussion
Author: Jan Kremers
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319449788
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 361
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Book Description
Our understanding of human color vision has advanced tremendously in recent years, helped along by many new discoveries, ideas, and achievements. It is therefore timely that these new developments are brought together in a book, assembled specifically to include new research and insight from the leaders in the field. Although intentionally not exhaustive, many aspects of color vision are discussed in this Springer Series in Vision Research book including: the genetics of the photopigments; the anatomy and physiology of photoreceptors, retinal and cortical pathways; color perception; the effects of disorders; theories on neuronal processes and the evolution of human color vision. Several of the chapters describe new, state-of-the-art methods within genetics, morphology, imaging techniques, electrophysiology, psychophysics, and computational neuroscience. The book gives a comprehensive overview of the different disciplines in human color vision in a way that makes it accessible to specialists and non-specialist scientists alike. About the Series: The Springer Series in Vision Research is a comprehensive update and overview of cutting edge vision research, exploring, in depth, current breakthroughs at a conceptual level. It details the whole visual system, from molecular processes to anatomy, physiology and behavior and covers both invertebrate and vertebrate organisms from terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Each book in the Series is aimed at all individuals with interests in vision including advanced graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, established vision scientists and clinical investigators. The series editors are N. Justin Marshall, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia and Shaun P. Collin, Neuroecology Group within the School of Animal Biology and the Oceans Institute at the University of Western Australia.
Author: David J. Gower
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108945074
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489
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Book Description
Snakes comprise nearly 4,000 extant species found on all major continents except Antarctica. Morphologically and ecologically diverse, they include burrowing, arboreal, and marine forms, feeding on prey ranging from insects to large mammals. Snakes are strikingly different from their closest lizard relatives, and their origins and early diversification have long challenged and enthused evolutionary biologists. The origin and early evolution of snakes is a broad, interdisciplinary topic for which experts in palaeontology, ecology, physiology, embryology, phylogenetics, and molecular biology have made important contributions. The last 25 years has seen a surge of interest, resulting partly from new fossil material, but also from new techniques in molecular and systematic biology. This volume summarises and discusses the state of our knowledge, approaches, data, and ongoing debates. It provides reviews, syntheses, new data and perspectives on a wide range of topics relevant to students and researchers in evolutionary biology, neontology, and palaeontology.
Author: Ikuo Takeuchi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470515708
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
Brings together key new results of interdisciplinary collaborations among various research fields on rhodopsin including the photoreceptive mechanism of rhodopsins, the molecular mechanism of the visual transduction process, visual processes in the retina and other transduction processes in the retina and brain. The structures of the rhodopsin molecule are studied in the fields of protein chemistry, molecular biology, organic chemistry and structural biology; the ultra fast reactions of the retinal protein are studied in physics, biophysics, physical chemistry, organic chemistry and photobiology; the phototransduction in retinal proteins and visual cells are studied in biophysics, biochemistry, biophysical chemistry and photobiology; and the localization in the tissues is studied in anatomy and histochemistry. The diversity of visual systems in various animals is studied in zoology and comparative biochemistry.
Author: Maria E. Abate
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9402420800
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 832
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Book Description
This volume constitutes the most recent and most comprehensive consideration of the largest family of bony fishes, the Cichlidae. This book offers an integrated perspective of cichlid fishes ranging from conservation of threatened species to management of cichlids as invasive species themselves. Long-standing models of taxonomy and systematics are subjected to the most recent applications and interpretations of molecular evidence and multivariate analyses; and cichlid adaptive radiations at different scales are elucidated. The incredible diversity of endemic cichlid species in African lakes is revisited as possible examples of sympatric speciation and as serious cases for management in complex anthropogenic environments. Extreme hydrology and bathymetry as driver of micro-allopatric speciation is explored in the African riverine hotspot of diversity of the lower Congo River. Dramatic new molecular evidence draws attention to the complex taxonomy and systematics of Neotropical cichlids including the crater lakes of Central America. Molecular genetics, genomics, imaging tools and field study techniques assess the roles of natural, sexual and kin selection in shaping cichlid traits and beyond. The complex behavioral adaptations of cichlids are considered from a number of sub-disciplines including sensory biology, neurobiology, development, and evolutionary ecology. Most importantly, this volume puts forth a wealth of new interpretations, explanatory hypotheses and proposals for practical management and applications that will shape the future for these remarkable fishes in nature as well as their use as models for the study of biology.
Author: Takahisa Furukawa
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9784431563358
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This book provides a series of comprehensive views on various important aspects of vertebrate photoreceptors. The vertebrate retina is a tissue that provides unique experimental advantages to neuroscientists. Photoreceptor neurons are abundant in this tissue and they are readily identifiable and easily isolated. These features make them an outstanding model for studying neuronal mechanisms of signal transduction, adaptation, synaptic transmission, development, differentiation, diseases and regeneration. Thanks to recent advances in genetic analysis, it also is possible to link biochemical and physiological investigations to understand the molecular mechanisms of vertebrate photoreceptors within a functioning retina in a living animal. Photoreceptors are the most deeply studied sensory receptor cells, but readers will find that many important questions remain. We still do not know how photoreceptors, visual pigments and their signaling pathways evolved, how they were generated and how they are maintained. This book will make clear what is known and what is not known. The chapters are selected from fields of studies that have contributed to a broad understanding of the birth, development, structure, function and death of photoreceptor neurons. The underlying common word in all of the chapters that is used to describe these mechanisms is “molecule”. Only with this word can we understand how these highly specific neurons function and survive. It is challenging for even the foremost researchers to cover all aspects of the subject. Understanding photoreceptors from several different points of view that share a molecular perspective will provide readers with a useful interdisciplinary perspective.
Author: Herbert J.A. Dartnall
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364265066X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 841
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Book Description
Radiation can only affect matter if absorbed by it. Within the broad range of 300-1000 nm, which we call "the visible", light quanta are energetic enough to produce excited electronic states in the atoms and molecules that absorb them. In these states the molecules may have quite different properties from those in their dormant condition, and reactions that would not otherwise occur become possible. About 80 % of the radiant energy emitted by our sun lies in this fertile band, and so long as the sun's surface temperature is maintained at about 6000° C this state of affairs will continue. This and the transparency of our atmosphere and waters have allowed the generation and evolution of life. Before life began the atmosphere probably also transmitted much of the solar short-wave radiation, but with the rise of vegetation a new product - oxygen - appeared and this, by a photochemical reaction in the upper atmosphere, led to the ozone layer that now protects us from the energetic "short-wave" quanta that once, perhaps, took part in the generation of life-molecules. Light is an ideal sensory stimulus. It travels in straight lines at great speed and, consequently, can be made to form an image from which an animal can make "true", continuous and immediate assessments of present and impending events.
Author: J. G. M. Thewissen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520252780
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 360
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Book Description
Ranging from crocodiles and penguins to seals and whales, this synthesis explores the function and evolution of sensory systems in animals whose ancestors lived on land. It explores the dramatic transformation of smell, taste, sight, hearing, and balance that occurred as lineages of reptiles, birds, and mammals returned to aquatic environments.
Author: Joyce Tombran-Tink
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1597453749
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 504
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Book Description
This book reveals not only how the eye evolved into an organ of vision, but also describes how molecular mechanisms of key molecules operate in the phototransduction cascade. In this groundbreaking text, experts also explain mechanisms for sensing radiation outside of the visible wavelengths. Comprehensive and penetrating, the book brings together the mechanisms of the visual transduction cascade and is an invaluable text for everyone conducting research in the visual system.
