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."

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

First English edition of a rare gem in the neurological sciences A milestone in neuroscience research, this high-profile Atlas depicts the cellular structure of practically every area of the human cortex with direct applications to current research in brain function. The entirety of the 112 original microphotographic plates, brilliant achievements in scientific microphotography and representing the 107 cytoarchitectonic areas of the human cerebral cortex, are reproduced in full size - large enough to be used for teaching purposes. An extensive introduction places the cytoarchitectonic studies of von Economo and Koskinas in a historical as well as a modern perspective, summarizing the essence of their findings and providing Brodmann area correlations. Biographies of von Economo and Koskinas and complete listings of their hard-to-find works are included in the Appendix. Originally published in German in 1925, it was considered a 'royal gift to science'. Revising Brodmann's nomenclature of 1909, the Nobel prize nominee von Economo and his colleague Koskinas took cytoarchitectonics to a new zenith, filling in gaps left by Brodmann on normal cortical structure, and documenting detailed findings in the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes, the insula, hippocampus, and superior limbic region. Far from being of purely academic or historical interest, this essential guide for all research on the cerebral cortex is of fundamental value to investigators in the brain and behavioral sciences, including basic, cognitive and evolutionary neuroscience, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuroimaging, neuropsychology and neurolinguistics, as well as to physicians in the clinical fields of neurology, neuropathology, neurosurgery and psychiatry.

Shimon Edelman bases a comprehensive approach to visual representation on the notion of correspondence between proximal (internal) and distal similarities in objects. Researchers have long sought to understand what the brain does when we see an object, what two people have in common when they see the same object, and what a "seeing" machine would need to have in common with a human visual system. Recent neurobiological and computational advances in the study of vision have now brought us close to answering these and other questions about representation. In Representation and Recognition in Vision, Shimon Edelman bases a comprehensive approach to visual representation on the notion of correspondence between proximal (internal) and distal similarities in objects. This leads to a computationally feasible and formally veridical representation of distal objects that addresses the needs of shape categorization and can be used to derive models of perceived similarity. Edelman first discusses the representational needs of various visual recognition tasks, and surveys current theories of representation in this context. He then develops a theory of representation that is related to Shepard's notion of second-order isomorphism between representations and their targets. Edelman goes beyond Shepard by specifying the conditions under which the representations can be made formally veridical. Edelman assesses his theory's performance in identification and categorization of 3D shapes and examines it in light of psychological and neurobiological data concerning the object-processing stream in primate vision. He also discusses the connections between his theory and other efforts to understand representation in the brain.

Our ability to be conscious of the world around us is often discussed as one of the most amazing yet enigmatic processes under scientific investigation today. However, our ability to imagine the world around us in the absence of stimulation from that world is perhaps even more amazing. This capacity to experience objects or scenarios through imagination, that do not necessarily exist in the world, is perhaps one of the fundamental abilities that allows us successfully to think about, plan, run a dress rehearsal of future events, re-analyze past events and even simulate or fantasize abstract events that may never happen. Empirical research into mental imagery has seen a recent surge, due partly to the development of new neuroscientifc methods and their clever application, but also due to the increasing discovery and application of more objective methods to investigate this inherently internal and private process. As the topic is cross hosted in Frontiers in Perception Science and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, we invite researchers from different fields to submit opinionated but balanced reviews, new empirical, theoretical, philosophical or technical papers covering any aspect of mental imagery. In particular, we encourage submissions focusing on different sensory modalities, such as olfaction, audition somatosensory etc. Similarly, we support submissions focusing on the relationship between mental imagery and other neural and cognitive functions or disorders such as visual working memory, visual search or disorders of anxiety. Together, we hope that collecting a group of papers on this research topic will help to unify theory while providing an overview of the state of the field, where it is heading, and how mental imagery relates to other cognitive and sensory functions.

The last 20 years of research have been marked by exceptional progress in understanding the organization and functions of the primate visual system. This understanding has been based on the wide application of traditional and newly emerging methods for identifying the functionally significant subdivisions of the system, their interconnections, the

Development of the Visual System presents a selection of current studies that clearly illustrate principles of visual system development. These range from retinal development in fish and frogs to the effects of abnormal visual experience on the primary visual cortex of the cat. The book is unique in addressing four specific and fundamental aspects of development: cell lineage and cell fate, specificity and targeting of axons, specification of visual cortex, and correlates of the critical period. Encompassing technical advances in cellular and molecular biology and in video imaging and microscopy, contributions in each of these areas provide new information at the cellular and molecular levels to complement the now classic descriptions of visual development previously available at the level of neural systems.ContributorsKaren L. Allendoerfer, David M. Altshuler, Antonella Antonini, Seymour Benzer, Edward M. Callaway, Constance L. Cepko, Hollis T. Cline, Max S. Cynader, N. W. Daw, Scott E. Fraser, K. Fox, Eckhard Friauf, Anirvan Ghosh, R. W. Guillery, William A. Harris, Christine E. Holt, Lawrence C. Katz, Susan McConnell, Pamela A. Raymond, Thomas A. Reh, Carla J. Shatz, Michael P. Stryker, Claudia A. 0. Stuermer, Mriganka Sur, David L. Turner, T. N. Wiesel

First published in 1995, this book presents a model for understanding the visual processing underlying perception and action, proposing a broad distinction within the brain between two kinds of vision: conscious perception and unconscious 'online' vision.

An essential reference book for visual science.