Form and Function in the Brain and Spinal Cord: Perspectives of a Neurologist

Author: Stephen G. Waxman
Published: October 2000
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262232103
Hardcover Book
Number of Pages: 529

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This book reflects Stephen Waxman's three decades of research on the form and functions of the brain and spinal cord. Building on his experience as a neuroscientist studying model systems as primitive as eels and as a neurologist studying humans, Waxman discusses a wide variety of topics, including the design principles that optimize neural function; molecular and cellular substrates of behavior; the role of glial cells in the brain; the molecular basis for pain; plasticity in the brain and spinal cord; strategies for promoting functional recovery in disorders such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and stroke; and prospects for rebuilding the brain and spinal cord. The pieces provide example after example of the elegance of design of the nervous system, of the intricate interplay between structure and function in health and disease, and of the rich borderland between neuroscience and neurology. Reflections on Stephen Waxman's three decades of research on the form and functions of the brain and spinal cord.

Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Growing up in Neuroscience
I Building a Smart Nerve Fiber 1
1 Relative Conduction Velocities of Small Myelinated and Non-myelinated Fibres in the Central Nervous System 5
II The Bauhaus in the Brain 11
2 Morphological Correlates of Functional Differentiation of Nodes of Ranvier along Single Fibers in the Neurogenic Electric Organ of the Knife Fish Sternarchus 13
III What is it? Where is it? 21
3 Introduction to Clinical Thinking: The Relationship between Neuroanatomy and Neurology 33
IV Seeing the Brain: the Impacts of Modern Brain Imaging 45
4 Acute Confusion States with Right Middle Cerebral Artery Infarctions 47
V Novels, Poems, and Cosmic Murals 55
5 Hypergraphia in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy 59
VI Stockings, Gloves, and Meaningless Chants 73
6 Diabetic Truncal Polyneuropathy 77
VII Self-Repair in the Nervous System 81
7 Conduction in Myelinated, Unmyelinated, and Demyelinated Fibers 85
8 Conduction through Demyelinated Plaques in Multiple Sclerosis: Computer Simulations of Facilitation by Short Internodes 93
9 Reorganization of the Axon Membrane in Demyelinated Peripheral Nerve Fibers: Morphological Evidence 105
10 Current Concepts in Neurology: Membranes, Myelin, and the Pathophysiology of Multiple Sclerosis 109
VIII Silent Damage 117
11 Evoked Poentials in Suspected Multiple Sclerosis: Diagnostic Value and Prediction of Clinical Course 121
12 Temporal Profile Resembling TIA in the Setting of Cerebral Infarction 137
IX Hide and Seek Along the Brain's Highways 145
13 Absence of Potassium Conductance in Central Myelinated Axons 149
14 Development of 4-AP and TEA Sensitivities in Mammalian Myelinated Nerve Fibers 153
X The Glue within the Brain 167
15 Specificity in Central Myelination: Evidence for Local Regulation of Myelin Thickness 173
16 Freeze-Fracture Ultrastructure of the Perinodal Astrocyte and Associated Glial Junctions 181
17 Ion Channels in Spinal Cord Astrocytes In Vitro. II. Biophysical and Pharmacological Analysis of Two Na[superscript +] Current Types 195
XI Spinal Cord Injury and Multiple Sclerosis: New Pathologies, New Therapeutic Targets 215
18 Aminopyridines and the Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury 219
19 Demyelinating Diseases - New Pathological Insights, New Therapeutic Targets 227
XII Seeds of Recovery within the Spinal Cord 231
20 Neurogenesis in Adult Vertebrate Spinal Cord In Situ and In Vitro: A New Model System 235
XIII How does a Boxer Stand? 253
21 Clinical Observation on the Emotional Motor System 255
XIV An Ambivalent See-Saw 267
22 Ionic Mechanisms of Anoxic Injury in Mammalian CNS White Matter: Role of Na[superscript +] Channels and Na[superscript +]-Ca[superscript 2+] Exchanger 271
23 Modulation of Anoxic Injury in CNS White Matter by Adenosine and Interaction between Adenosine and GABA 293
XV Symphonia Molecularis 311
24 Spinal Sensory Neurons Express Multiple Sodium Channel [alpha]-Subunit mRNAs 315
25 Delayed Depolarization and Slow Sodium Currents in Cutaneous Afferents 337
26 Slow Closed-State Inactivation: A Novel Mechanism Underlying Ramp Current in Cells Expressing the hNE/PNI Sodium Channel 357
XVI Messengers of Pathos 381
27 Down-Regulation of Transcripts for Na Channel [alpha]-SNS in Spinal Sensory Neurons Following Axotomy 385
28 Down-Regulation of Tetrodotoxin-Resistant Sodium Curents and Up-Regulation of a Rapidly Repriming Tetrodotoxin-Sensitive Sodium Current in Small Spinal Sensory Neurons after Nerve Injury 393
29 Insertion of an SNS-specific Tetrapeptide in the S3-S4 Linker of D4 Accelerates Recovery from Inactivation of Skeletal Muscle Voltage-Gated Na Channel [mu]1 in HEK293 Cells 413
30 Sodium Channels and Pain 421
XVII Needle in a Haystack 433
31 NaN, a Novel Voltage-Gated Na Channel, Is Expressed Preferentially in Peripheral Sensory Neurons and Down-Regulated after Axotomy 437
32 A Novel Persistent Tetrodotoxin-Resistant Sodium Current in SNS-null and Wild-Type Small Primary Sensory Neurons 449
XVIII Rebuilding the Brain and Spinal Cord 459
33 Restoration of Normal Conduction Properties in Demyelinated Spinal Cord Axons in the Adult Rat by Transplantation of Exogenous Schwann Cells 463
XIX You can't Step in the Same River Twice 479
34 Molecular and Functional Remodeling of Electrogenic Membrane of Hypothalamic Neurons in Response to Changes in Their Input 483
Index 495

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