Neurology of Vision and Visual Disorders, Volume 178 in the Handbooks of Neurology series provides comprehensive summaries of recent research on the brain and nervous system. This volume reviews alterations in vision that stem from the retina to the cortex. Coverage includes content on vision and driving derived from the large amount of time devoted in clinics to determining who is safe to drive, along with research on the interplay between visual loss, attention and strategic compensations that may determine driving suitability. The title concludes with vision therapies and the evidence behind these approaches. Each chapter is co-written by a basic scientist collaborating with a clinician to provide a solid underpinning of the mechanisms behind the clinical syndromes. - Reviews the neurological underpinnings of visual perception disorders - Encompasses the cortex to the retina - Covers functional organization, electrophysiology and subcortical visual pathways - Discusses assessment, diagnosis and management of visual perception disorders - Includes international experts from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Singapore, and the UK and US

The Neurology of Vision sets out the principles and information needed to understand and manage disorders of the visual pathways in the brain. The author divides vision into three components. The optical component addresses the eye's ability to properly focus light on the retina. The retinocortical component converts light into neural signals in the retina, transmitting them to the primary visual cortex. Finally, the integrative component converts this simple visual information into more complicated forms. The symptoms and signs, testing methods, and diseases of each part of the visual system are presented using this unique, structural component approach. A final chapter discusses the visual manifestations of psychiatric disturbances. The book is heavily illustrated with over 150 beautifully rendered line illustrations, 50 radiographic brain images, and 60 retinal photographs. Case studies with teaching questions are also included, to further the reader's knowledge and test understanding.

The ability to see deeply affects how human beings perceive and interpret the world around them. For most people, eyesight is part of everyday communication, social activities, educational and professional pursuits, the care of others, and the maintenance of personal health, independence, and mobility. Functioning eyes and vision system can reduce an adult's risk of chronic health conditions, death, falls and injuries, social isolation, depression, and other psychological problems. In children, properly maintained eye and vision health contributes to a child's social development, academic achievement, and better health across the lifespan. The public generally recognizes its reliance on sight and fears its loss, but emphasis on eye and vision health, in general, has not been integrated into daily life to the same extent as other health promotion activities, such as teeth brushing; hand washing; physical and mental exercise; and various injury prevention behaviors. A larger population health approach is needed to engage a wide range of stakeholders in coordinated efforts that can sustain the scope of behavior change. The shaping of socioeconomic environments can eventually lead to new social norms that promote eye and vision health. Making Eye Health a Population Health Imperative: Vision for Tomorrow proposes a new population-centered framework to guide action and coordination among various, and sometimes competing, stakeholders in pursuit of improved eye and vision health and health equity in the United States. Building on the momentum of previous public health efforts, this report also introduces a model for action that highlights different levels of prevention activities across a range of stakeholders and provides specific examples of how population health strategies can be translated into cohesive areas for action at federal, state, and local levels.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From “the poet laureate of medicine" (The New York Times) and the author of the classic The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat comes a fascinating exploration of the remarkable, unpredictable ways that our brains cope with the loss of sight by finding rich new forms of perception. “Elaborate and gorgeously detailed.... Again and again, Sacks invites readers to imagine their way into minds unlike their own, encouraging a radical form of empathy.” —Los Angeles Times With compassion and insight, Dr. Oliver Sacks again illuminates the mysteries of the brain by introducing us to some remarkable characters, including Pat, who remains a vivacious communicator despite the stroke that deprives her of speech, and Howard, a novelist who loses the ability to read. Sacks investigates those who can see perfectly well but are unable to recognize faces, even those of their own children. He describes totally blind people who navigate by touch and smell; and others who, ironically, become hyper-visual. Finally, he recounts his own battle with an eye tumor and the strange visual symptoms it caused. As he has done in classics like The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, Dr. Sacks shows us that medicine is both an art and a science, and that our ability to imagine what it is to see with another person's mind is what makes us truly human.

Biomarkers, or biological markers, are quantitative measurements that offer researchers and clinicians valuable insight into diagnosis, treatment and prognosis for many disorders and diseases. A major goal in neuroscience medical research is establishing biomarkers for disorders of the nervous system. Given the promising potential and necessity for neuroscience biomarkers, the Institute of Medicine Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders convened a public workshop and released the workshop summary entitled Neuroscience Biomarkers and Biosignatures: Converging Technologies, Emerging Partnerships. The workshop brought together experts from multiple areas to discuss the most promising and practical arenas in neuroscience in which biomarkers will have the greatest impact. The main objective of the workshop was to identify and discuss biomarker targets that are not currently being aggressively pursued but that could have the greatest near-term impact on the rate at which new treatments are brought forward for psychiatric and neurological disorders.

This thoroughly updated and extended edition covers the various cerebral visual disorders acquired after brain injury, as well as the rehabilitation techniques used to treat them. These are described within a brain plasticity framework, using data from single and group case studies along with follow up observation data. This original, tailor-made approach also includes the recording of eye movements for assessing scanning performance in scene perception and reading. The book gives a brief synopsis of the historical background on the subject, alongside an outline of intervention designs and methodological difficulties in the field, and goes on to discuss the mechanisms and processes that provide the foundations for recovery of function and successful adaptation in visually impaired patients. The author concludes by analyzing the importance of the procedures and outcomes of treatments to the reduction of patients’ visual handicaps. The new edition also contains an appendix with recommendations on the case histories, diagnostics and treatments. It is ideal reading for students in clinical neuropsychology, as well as professionals in the fields of neurology, visual neuroscience and rehabilitation experts.

The paroxysmal disorders present neurologists and other medical professionals with diagnostic problems across a range of disorders, including multiple sclerosis, migraine and epilepsy. This new English language edition of a compendium of the paroxysmal disorders, originally published in German as Paroxysmale Störugen in der Neurologie, is an informative and practical resource for clinicians, which provides invaluable help with differential diagnosis and management. Fully updated throughout, this new edition comprehensively covers the entire spectrum of the paroxysmal disorders, including sudden falls, headache, vertigo attacks, memory loss, visual disturbances, seizures and anxiety. Each chapter is practice oriented, covering definitions, etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, examination techniques and therapy. Detailed guidelines for gathering case-histories, essential for accurate diagnosis, are also provided. Important reading for clinicians, professionals and academic researchers working in neurology, psychiatry, epilepsy, internal medicine and ENT.

This book adopts a novel approach: procedures: instead of discussing the diagnostic categories of neurological syndromes, it focuses on the symptoms of common neurological presentations (especially in the emergency room or on the ward), and the diagnostic hypotheses that can be validated or rejected case by case as a result. Each chapter covers one of the main symptoms of emergencies in neurology – from transient consciousness disturbances to focal deficits, acute muscular disorders, respiratory insufficiency in neurological disorders, headaches, delirium, seizures and epileptic status, para-and tetraplegia, and head trauma, to acute functional disorders – and includes tables and figures to allow readers to gain a quick and easy, yet comprehensive overview of the topic. The book guides readers through various scenarios generated by the onset of symptoms, the clinical tools for differential diagnostics, and the principles of acute and post-acute phase therapy, managed by decision algorithms supported by the most recent scientific evidence. The resulting precedural profile – created through the collaboration of over 80 specialists in neurology or other disciplines – makes this text a valuable tool for neurologists, neurology residents and allied professionals in their daily clinical practice, as well as medical students.

A state-of-the-art review on psychiatric syndromes common in Parkinson's disease Psychiatric symptoms are common in the neurological and geriatric care of patients with Parkinson's disease. This book assembles short reviews from experts in the field to chart the various psychiatric syndromes known in Parkinson's disease, their presentation, etiology and management. Presented are special topics on epidemiology of psychiatric symptoms, affective disorders and apathy, early cognitive impairment through to dementia, visuoperceptual dysfunction, psychotic disorders, sleep disturbances, impulse disorders and sexual problems. Further, rarely discussed issues, such as the relationship between somatoform disorders and parkinsonism are reviewed. This publication is essential reading for old age psychiatrists, gerontologists and neurologists who work with patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. In addition, health practitioners who deal with senior patients, as well as scientists who need a quick update on the progress in this important clinical field will find this volume a helpful reference.

Pediatric Neuroophthalmology details the diagnostic criteria, current concepts of pathogenesis, neuroradiological correlates, and clinical management of a large group of neuroophthalmic disorders that present in childhood. Surprisingly distinct from neuroophthalmic disorders afflicting adults, this set of diseases falls between the cracks of most ophthalmology training, and thus, warrants a practical, clinical guide for the practitioner in ophthalmology - the neuroophthalmologist, pediatric ophthalmologist, general ophthalmologist - as well as neurologists and for residents. The authors, leading pediatric ophthalmologists, have taken this difficult subject matter and developed an accessible, user-friendly manual with a detailed approach to the recognition, differential diagnosis, and management of pediatric neuroophthalmologic disorders.