The Brain: A Very Short Introduction
Michael O'Shea
Language: English
Pages: 144
ISBN: 0192853929
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Brain: A Very Short Introduction provides a non-technical introduction to the main issues and findings in current brain research and gives a sense of how neuroscience addresses questions about the relationship between the brain and the mind. Short, clear discussions on the mechanical workings of the brain are offered and the details of brain science are covered in an accessible style. Explanations of the more familiar implications of the brain's actions, such as memories, perceptions, and motor control are integrated throughout the book. It has chapters on brain processes and the causes of "altered mental states," as well as a final chapter that discusses possible future developments in neuroscience, touching on artificial intelligence, gene therapy, the importance of the Human Genome Project, drugs by design, and transplants. Up-to-date coverage of the newest developments in brain research and suggestions for future research on the brain are also included.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
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Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
For Physiology and Medicine in 1963, not least because the principles and mechanisms uncovered in the squid were universal – explaining even how our axons transmit electrical signals. It seems a little unfair on the squid that there is no formal 36 acknowledgement of its contribution to one of the most outstanding achievements of 20th-century science. Transmission speeds in excess of 100 metres per second are possible by improving the axon’s insulation with a multilayered Swiss-roll-like.
And individuals doing this most effectively reproduced more and prospered. So even a single free-living cell can behave adaptively, can orient, and move ‘intelligently’ in response to environmental stimuli, combining all of the sensing and acting functions necessary for 43 survival without a nervous system. This can be seen in modern-day unicellular organisms such as the ciliated protozoan Paramecium, which has a rich repertoire of orientation behaviours. They can sense and then swim towards.
Cyclic-AMP. m Once in the cell body the activated kinases enter the nucleus and ade there, in cooperation with other similar molecules, they modify of this special proteins that interact directly with DNA and thereby regulate the expression of particular genes. Through this mechanism some genes are turned on immediately (called immediate early genes) and others are turned on later. In Aplysia proteins that result from this process of gene activation are transported back to the synapse where.
Regeneration therapies offer some hope, until such therapies are effective in restoring function to Brok damaged pathways, brain–machine interface technology offers a en br realistic alternative and the bionic man is no longer necessarily the ain preserve of science fiction. Of course the experiments on monkeys, showing that mind control of useful prosthetic devices is possible, involve highly invasive and expensive surgical procedures. In addition, with current technology a patient would be.
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