Brain Aging


Book Description

Recognition that aging is not the accumulation of disease, but rather comprises fundamental biological processes that are amenable to experimental study, is the basis for the recent growth of experimental biogerontology. As increasingly sophisticated studies provide greater understanding of what occurs in the aging brain and how these changes occur




The Female Brain


Book Description

Since Dr. Brizendine wrote The Female Brain ten years ago, the response has been overwhelming. This New York Times bestseller has been translated into more than thirty languages, has sold nearly a million copies between editions, and has most recently inspired a romantic comedy starring Whitney Cummings and Sofia Vergara. And its profound scientific understanding of the nature and experience of the female brain continues to guide women as they pass through life stages, to help men better understand the girls and women in their lives, and to illuminate the delicate emotional machinery of a love relationship. Why are women more verbal than men? Why do women remember details of fights that men can’t remember at all? Why do women tend to form deeper bonds with their female friends than men do with their male counterparts? These and other questions have stumped both sexes throughout the ages. Now, pioneering neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, M.D., brings together the latest findings to show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what they value, how they communicate, and who they love. While doing research as a medical student at Yale and then as a resident and faculty member at Harvard, Louann Brizendine discovered that almost all of the clinical data in existence on neurology, psychology, and neurobiology focused exclusively on males. In response to the overwhelming need for information on the female mind, Brizendine established the first clinic in the country to study and treat women’s brain function. In The Female Brain, Dr. Brizendine distills all her findings and the latest information from the scientific community in a highly accessible book that educates women about their unique brain/body/behavior. The result: women will come away from this book knowing that they have a lean, mean, communicating machine. Men will develop a serious case of brain envy.




Pediatric Andrology


Book Description

The subject matter in this volume was derived from papers presented at the Pediatric Andrology session of the 1st Pan American Congress of Andrology held in Caracas, Venezuela in February 1979, as well as from selected additional manuscripts of interest in this field. Prior to this session, identification of a distinct discipline and specialty devoted to pediatric andrology had not occurred, nor had it been conceptualized. Pediatric andrology encompasses many different areas: disorders of sexual development, structural disease of the genital organs, normal and abnormal puberty, undescended testes, genital tumors, gonadal function and its relationship to growth, virilization, fertility and gender identity all represent areas of specific interest, to name but a few. Andrology itself is a unique field, bringing together clinicians and basic scientists with diverse back grounds. It should be noted that between one-half and three-quarters of the clinicians contributing to this issue conduct basic research as well. It has been this unique blend of basic research and clinical medicine which has done much to unravel many of these problems characteristic of this field.




Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health


Book Description

It's obvious why only men develop prostate cancer and why only women get ovarian cancer. But it is not obvious why women are more likely to recover language ability after a stroke than men or why women are more apt to develop autoimmune diseases such as lupus. Sex differences in health throughout the lifespan have been documented. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health begins to snap the pieces of the puzzle into place so that this knowledge can be used to improve health for both sexes. From behavior and cognition to metabolism and response to chemicals and infectious organisms, this book explores the health impact of sex (being male or female, according to reproductive organs and chromosomes) and gender (one's sense of self as male or female in society). Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health discusses basic biochemical differences in the cells of males and females and health variability between the sexes from conception throughout life. The book identifies key research needs and opportunities and addresses barriers to research. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health will be important to health policy makers, basic, applied, and clinical researchers, educators, providers, and journalists-while being very accessible to interested lay readers.




Gut Hormones


Book Description







The Neurobiology of Motivation and Reward


Book Description

This book was conceived many years ago as an abstract goal for a father-son team when the father was working in university administration and the son was just getting into the academic business. Eventually, the father returned to the laboratory, the son began to get his feet on the ground, and the goal became concrete. Now the work is finished, and our book enters the literature as, we hope, a valuable contribution to understanding the terribly complex and subtle problem of the neuro biology of motivated behaviors. We would also like the book to stand as a personal mark of a cooperative relationship between father and son. This special relationship between the authors gave us an extra dimension of pleasure in writing the book, and it would delight us if it gave anyone else an extra dimension of enjoyment from reading it. One thing we hope happens is that anyone or simply considering entering similar considering a similar partnership, of this book as encouragement. Such re fields, will take the existence lationships are highly satisfying if both parties take care to protect the partnership. When we actually sat down to write the book, we were humbled by the immense literature and the smallness of both our conceived space for putting it down and of our brains for processing all the information.




Brain Arousal and Information Theory


Book Description

Arousal is fundamental to all cognition. It is intuitively obvious, absolutely necessary, but what exactly is it? In Brain Arousal and Information Theory, Donald Pfaff presents a daring perspective on this long-standing puzzle. Pfaff argues that, beneath our mental functions and emotional dispositions, a primitive neuronal system governs arousal. Employing the simple but powerful framework of information theory, Pfaff revolutionizes our understanding of arousal systems in the brain. Starting with a review of the neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and neurochemical components of arousal, Pfaff asks us to look at the gene networks and neural pathways underlying the brain's arousal systems much as a design engineer would contemplate information systems. This allows Pfaff to postulate that there is a bilaterally symmetric, bipolar system universal among mammals that readies the animal or the human being to respond to stimuli, initiate voluntary locomotion, and react to emotional challenges. Applying his hypothesis to heightened states of arousal--sex and fear--Pfaff shows us how his theory opens new scientific approaches to understanding the structure of brain arousal. A major synthesis of disparate data by a preeminent neuroscientist, Brain Arousal and Information Theory challenges current thinking about cognition and behavior. Whether you subscribe to Pfaff's theory or not, this book will stimulate debate about the nature of arousal itself.




Research Awards Index


Book Description




CNS Neurotransmitters and Neuromodulators


Book Description

As a volume in the series CNS Neurotransmitters and Neuromodulators, this text is destined to become a definitive reference. Well-known international authors have contributed up-to-date reviews covering a wide-range of interdisciplinary aspects of neuroactive steroid function. Specifically, this volume includes chapters dealing with the expression and properties of steroid receptors in the central nervous system (CNS); steroid interactions with amino acids, amines, and growth factors; electrophysiology; hypothalamic and feeding control; and the extremely topical issue of steroid influences on sexual differentiation of the brain. Neuroactive Steroids is an indispensable reference work for any researcher involved with steroids in the CNS, particularly in the areas of physiology, anatomy, neuropharmacology, neurochemistry, psychiatry, and molecular biology. In addition, it provides the perfect one-stop introduction for students.