Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a significant source of death and permanent disability, contributing to nearly one-third of all injury related deaths in the United States and exacting a profound personal and economic toll. Despite the increased resources that have recently been brought to bear to improve our understanding of TBI, the developme

A practical guide on how to assess and treat schizophrenia and related disorders using cognitive rehabilitation.

Brain plasticity is the focus of a growing body of research with significant implications for neurorehabilitation. This state-of-the-art volume explores ways in which brain-injured individuals may be helped not only to compensate for their loss of cognitive abilities, but also possibly to restore those abilities. Expert contributors examine the extent to which damaged cortical regions can actually recover and resume previous functions, as well as how intact regions are recruited to take on tasks once mediated by the damaged region. Evidence-based rehabilitation approaches are reviewed for a range of impairments and clinical populations, including both children and adults.

Music is an important source of enjoyment, learning, and well-being in life as well as a rich, powerful, and versatile stimulus for the brain. With the advance of modern neuroimaging techniques during the past decades, we are now beginning to understand better what goes on in the healthy brain when we hear, play, think, and feel music and how the structure and function of the brain can change as a result of musical training and expertise. For more than a century, music has also been studied in the field of neurology where the focus has mostly been on musical deficits and symptoms caused by neurological illness (e.g., amusia, musicogenic epilepsy) or on occupational diseases of professional musicians (e.g., focal dystonia, hearing loss). Recently, however, there has been increasing interest and progress also in adopting music as a therapeutic tool in neurological rehabilitation, and many novel music-based rehabilitation methods have been developed to facilitate motor, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning of infants, children and adults suffering from a debilitating neurological illness or disorder. Traditionally, the fields of music neuroscience and music therapy have progressed rather independently, but they are now beginning to integrate and merge in clinical neurology, providing novel and important information about how music is processed in the damaged or abnormal brain, how structural and functional recovery of the brain can be enhanced by music-based rehabilitation methods, and what neural mechanisms underlie the therapeutic effects of music. Ideally, this information can be used to better understand how and why music works in rehabilitation and to develop more effective music-based applications that can be targeted and tailored towards individual rehabilitation needs. The aim of this Research Topic is to bring together research across multiple disciplines with a special focus on music, brain, and neurological rehabilitation. We encourage researchers working in the field to submit a paper presenting either original empirical research, novel theoretical or conceptual perspectives, a review, or methodological advances related to following two core topics: 1) how are musical skills and attributes (e.g., perceiving music, experiencing music emotionally, playing or singing) affected by a developmental or acquired neurological illness or disorder (for example, stroke, aphasia, brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, autism, ADHD, dyslexia, focal dystonia, or tinnitus) and 2) what is the applicability, effectiveness, and mechanisms of music-based rehabilitation methods for persons with a neurological illness or disorder? Research methodology can include behavioural, physiological and/or neuroimaging techniques, and studies can be either clinical group studies or case studies (studies of healthy subjects are applicable only if their findings have clear clinical implications).

This volume makes clear that the cognitive and behavioural symptoms of neurologic disorders and syndromes are dynamic and changing. Each chapter describes the neuroplastic processes at work in a particular condition, giving rise to these ongoing cognitive changes.

Cognitive Enhancement: Pharmacologic, Environmental and Genetic Factors addresses the gap that exists in research on the topic, gathering multidisciplinary knowledge and tools that help the reader understand the basics of cognitive enhancement. It also provides assistance in designing procedures and pharmacological approaches to further the use of novel cognitive enhancers, a field that offers potential benefit to a variety of populations, including those with neurologic and psychiatric disorders, mild aging-related cognitive impairment, and those who want to improve intellectual performance. The text builds on our knowledge of the molecular/cellular basis of cognitive function, offering the technological developments that may soon enhance cognition. Separate sections cover enhancement drugs, environmental conditions, and genetic factors in terms of both human and animal studies, including both healthy/young and aging/diseased individuals. - Provides a multidisciplinary knowledge, enabling a further understanding of cognitive enhancement - Offers coverage of the pharmacologic, environmental, and genetic factors relevant to the topic - Discusses cognitive enhancement from the perspective of both healthy and diseased or aging populations - Topics are discussed in terms of both human and animal studies

This second edition of the popular Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging provides up-to-date coverage of the most fundamental topics in this discipline. Like the first edition, this volume accessibly and comprehensively reviews the neural mechanisms of cognitive aging appropriate to both professionals and students in a variety of domains, including psychology, neuroscience, neuropsychology, neurology, and psychiatry. The chapters are organized into three sections. The first section focuses on major questions regarding methodological approaches and experimental design. It includes chapters on structural imaging (MRI, DTI), functional imaging (fMRI), and molecular imaging (dopamine PET, etc), and covers multimodal imaging, longitudinal studies, and the interpretation of imaging findings. The second section concentrates on specific cognitive abilities, including attention and inhibitory control, executive functions, memory, and emotion. The third section turns to domains with health and clinical implications, such as the emergence of cognitive deficits in middle age, the role of genetics, the effects of modulatory variables (hypertension, exercise, cognitive engagement), and the distinction between healthy aging and the effects of dementia and depression. Taken together, the chapters in this volume, written by many of the most eminent scientists as well as young stars in this discipline, provide a unified and comprehensive overview of cognitive neuroscience of aging.

Late life is characterized by great diversity in memory and other cognitive functions. Although a substantial proportion of older adults suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, a majority retain a high level of cognitive skills throughout the life span. Identifying factors that sustain and enhance cognitive well-being is a growing area of original and translational research. In 2009, there are as many as 5.2 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease, and that figure is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. One in six women and one in 10 men who live to be at least age 55 will develop Alzheimer’s disease in their remaining lifetime. Approximately 10 million of the 78 million baby boomers who were alive in 2008 can expect to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Seventy percent of people with Alzheimer’s disease live at home, cared for by family and friends. In 2008, 9.8 million family members, friends, and neighbors provided unpaid care for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. The direct costs to Medicare and Medicaid for care of people with Alzheimer’s disease amount to more than $148 billion annually (from Alzheimer’s Association, 2008 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures). This book will highlight the research foundations behind brain fitness interventions as well as showcase innovative community-based programs to maintain and promote mental fitness and intervene with adults with cognitive impairment. The emphasis is on illustrating the nuts and bolts of setting up and utilizing cognitive health programs in the community, not just the laboratory.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.