Book Description

Efferent Organization and the Integration of Behavior is a nine-chapter text that discusses the hypotheses and alternative conceptualizations of efferent mechanisms, as well as the neural basis of patterned movement. The opening chapters examine several behavioral categories, the neural mediation of movement, and the distinction between efferent response and efferent motor processes. These chapters also present a revised theory of the role of the motor system in physiological regulation and neural-metabolic integration in energy production for behavior. These topics are followed by considerable chapters devoted to efferent organization of specific brain sections, including the motor cortex, pyramidal system, globus pallidus, substantia nigra, diencephalon, hippocampus, and neocortex. This text also deals with the instrumental conditioning based on alimentary or food reinforcements. A chapter discusses the constraints on theoretical interpretations of neuroanatomical circuitry functions of noradrenergic and cholinergic brain systems. The concluding chapter describes the relationship between the motor integration systems of extrapyramidal structures and the motivational systems of limbic structures. This chapter also looks into the anatomical organization of self-stimulation and the microelectrode data, which delineate the response of single neurons to stimulation at hypothalamic self-stimulation sites.