Brain Architecture Understanding the Basic Plan

by Swanson, Larry W.

• ISBN13: 9780195105049
• ISBN10: 0195105044
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-31
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Depending on your point of view the brain is an organ, a machine, a biological computer, or simply the most important component of the nervous system. How does it work as a whole? What are its major parts and how are they interconnected to generate thinking, feelings, and behavior? This book surveys 2,500 years of scientific thinking about these profoundly important questions from the perspective of fundamental architectural principles, and then proposes a new model for the basic plan of neural systems organization based on an explosion of structural data emerging from the neuroanatomy revolution of the 1970's The importance of a balance between theoretical and experimental morphology is stressed throughout the book. Great advances in understanding the brain's basic plan brain have come especially from two traditional lines of biological thought- evolution and embryology, because each begins with the simple and progresses to the more complex. Understanding the organization of brain circuits, which contain thousands of links or pathways, is much more difficult. It is argued here that a four-system network model can explain the structure-function organization of the brain. Possible relationships between neural networks and gene networks revealed by the human genome project are explored in the final chapter. The book is written in clear and sparkling prose, and it is profusely illustrated. It is designed to be read by anyone with an interest in the basic organization of the brain, from neuroscience to philosophy to computer science to molecular biology. It is suitable for use in neuroscience core courses because it presents basic principles of the structure of the nervous system in a systematic way.

Table of Contents

How the Brain Works: Structure and Function	1	(8)
Three Biological Perspectives	3	(6)
The Simplest Nervous Systems: Neurons, Nerve Nets, and Behavior	9	(20)
Unicellular Organisms: Behaviors Essential for Survival	11	(3)
Animals without Neurons: Independent Effectors	14	(2)
The First Nervous System: Hydra's Body and Behavior	16	(1)
Sensory Neurons: Functional Polarity of Dendrites and Axon	17	(3)
Motoneurons: Another Distinct Neuronal Type	20	(2)
Nerve Nets: Amacrine Processes and Activity Patterns	22	(2)
Interneurons: Sign Switchers and Pattern Generators	24	(2)
Overview: Evolution of Architecture, Not Building Blocks	26	(3)
Centralization and Symmetry: Ganglia and Nerves	29	(11)
Flatworms: Bilaterally Symmetrical Predators	29	(5)
Segmented Worms: Internal Ventral Nerve Cord	34	(2)
More Evolved Invertebrates	36	(1)
Overview: Polarity, Regionalization, Bilateral Symmetry, Segments	37	(3)
The Basic Vertebrate Plan: Nervous System Topology	40	(40)
Embryological Perspectives	44	(4)
Earliest Stages of Mammalian Development	48	(3)
Neural Plate: Brain and Spinal Cord	51	(2)
Neural Tube: Transverse Brain Divisions	53	(4)
Neural Crest and Placodes: Peripheral Nervous System	57	(3)
Generating Neuronal Cell Types and Groups: Longitudinal Brain Divisions	60	(8)
A Nervous System Fate Map	68	(8)
Overview: Parts of the Nervous System	76	(4)
Brain and Behavior: A Four Systems Network Model	80	(17)
Reflex and Voluntary Control of Behavior	86	(3)
Behavioral State Control	89	(1)
Feedback	90	(2)
Topography versus Systems	92	(3)
Overview: Defining Each System	95	(2)
The Motor System: Coordinating External and Internal Behaviors	97	(42)
Motoneuron Classes	98	(4)
Introduction to the Somatomotor System: Flexion	102	(2)
Distribution of Somatomotor Neuron Pools	104	(5)
Central Pattern Generators: Sets of Motoneuron Pools	109	(8)
Pattern Initiators and Controllers: Drive and Motivation	117	(5)
The Autonomic Motor System	122	(4)
The Neuroendocrine Motor System	126	(5)
The Cerebellum: Motor Coordination and Learning	131	(3)
Overview: Integration within and between Motor Systems	134	(5)
The Behavioral State System: Intrinsic Control of Sleep and Wakefulness	139	(17)
Circadian Rhythms: The Day-Night Cycle	142	(3)
Reproductive Cycles	145	(3)
Sleep-Wake Cycles	148	(1)
Modulating Behavioral State	149	(7)
The Cognitive System: Thinking and Voluntary Control of Behavior	156	(26)
Cerebral Cortex Regionalization	158	(8)
Cortical Cellular Organization	166	(6)
Cortical Projections	172	(1)
The Cerebral Nuclei	172	(3)
Triple Descending Projection from Cerebrum	175	(7)
The Sensory System: Inputs from the Environment and the Body	182	(24)
Evolution and Development of Sensory Neurons	184	(3)
Overview of Sensory Neurons	187	(4)
Overview of Sensory Pathways	191	(2)
Forebrain Sensory Systems: Olfactory, Visual, Humoral, and Osmotic	193	(5)
Ganglion Cell Sensory Systems: Submodalities	198	(3)
Affect: Pain and Pleasure, Emotion, and Mood	201	(5)
Modifiability: Learning, Stress, Cycles, and Damage Repair	206	(13)
Learning: Changing Synaptic Strength	207	(3)
Stress: Biochemical Switching	210	(5)
Cycles: Circadian and Reproductive	215	(2)
Damage Repair: Regrowth	217	(2)
Gene Networks: Relationship to Neural Networks	219	(4)
Appendices	223	(20)
A. Describing Position in the Animal Body	223	(6)
B. Naming and Classifying Nervous System Parts	229	(6)
C. Methods for Analyzing Brain Architecture	235	(8)
Glossary	243	(4)
Index	247