The microvasculature of the brain is important in the normal development and maintenance of the blood-brain barrier. Since glial cells are in close contact with brain capillaries in situ, communication between glial cells and capillary endothelial cells is thought to be important in mai ...
Oligodendrocytes were first described by Robertson in 1899 as small cells with a few processes of variable length. In 1921, del Rio Hortega published a detailed histological description of these cells and coined the descriptive word “oligodendrocyte.” The localization of these cells al ...
In 1964, in the Johns Hopkins clinics, Michael Lesch and William Nyhan saw two brothers with cerebral palsy, movement disorder, and an extremely high plasma uric acid (VA) level. Most striking in these patients was compulsive self-mutilatory behavior (SMB) involving intense biting of the dig ...
An optical measurement of membrane potential using a molecular probe might be beneficial in a variety of circumstances. “Such a probe could, we believe, provide a powerful new technique for measuring membrane potential in systems where, for reasons of scale, topology, or complexity, the use of ...
As other chapters in this book demonstrate, intra- and extracellular recording provide considerable information about the electrical behavior of cells. However, as Hodgkin and Huxley (1952) taught us long ago, analysis of the mechanisms that generate electrical activity is far easier ...
In this chapter, we will give an overview of the methods for making electrical recordings from single ion channels in cell membranes and in planar lipid bilayers, endeavoring to point out the advantages and limitations of each approach. Since extensive treatments of various aspects of the tec ...
The technique of intracellular recording is useful in studies seeking information about the functioning of individual neurons, their place in neuronal circuitry, and their membrane properties. For some of the just named applications, intracellular recording is the only method for o ...
One of the major challenges for the neuropharmacologist is to relate functions to the numerous ligand binding sites identified in brain tissue; there are, for example, at least seven postulated 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptors and associated subtypes. Such studies involve bioc ...
Techniques for measuring ion concentrations in tissue have been vitally important for critically evaluating a broad range of physiological phenomena. Refinements that allow ion activities to be monitored with considerable spatial and temporal precision have been particula ...
Children with mental retardation typically show a general developmental delay, whereas in specific developmental disorders, there is a delay in a specific area of behavior, such as reading or speech. According to DSMIII (American Psychiatric Association, 1980,1987), the diagnostic ...
Much of our present understanding of human biology has been acquired directly from animal experiments. Animal research has strongly enhanced our understanding of neurochemical, neuroendocrine, and genetic factors in normal and pathological functioning of human beings. Howev ...
Behavioral pharmacology is the detection, description, and explanation of drug effects on behavior. It can be divided into four subsections: 1. The neurochemical or physi
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a complex array of neuropathological, biochemical, and behavioral sequelae (Folstein and Whitehouse, 1983). AD is a recognized socioeconomic problem that has significant effects on a large percentage of ...
Some people might wonder about the propriety of asking a laboratory animal veterinarian to author a chapter on the ethics of animal use in neuropsychiatric research. After all, she or he is part of the infrastructure that supports biomedical research rather than an independent ethicist or phi ...
This chapter concerns animal models of a diverse group of insults that can directly perturb myelin or the cells that synthesize myelin in the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). Section 2 briefly relates the developmental sequence of events culminating in mye ...
The myelin sheath is a highly organized membranous structure that wraps tightly around an axon and provides for the energy-efficient, high velocity propagation of nerve impulses—known as saltatory conduction—without depolarization of adjacent nerve fibers (see chapter by Mill ...
An adequate animal model of a disease should reproduce the cardinal features of its human counterpart. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by akinesia, rigidity, and tremor. Attempts to reproduce Parkinsonian symptoms can be divided in three broad categories according to the method ...
The cardinal symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are rigidity, akinesia, and tremors. Secondary symptoms include postural abnormalities and neuropsychiatric disturbances such as depression, cognitive disorders, and apparent apathy (Barbeau, 1979; Schultz, 1984; Marsden et al., ...
Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited, progressive neurodegenerative disorder transmitted by a single autosomal dominant gene. The symptomology of the disease was first described by George Huntington in 1872 as consisting of a progressive dementia coupled with bizarre uncon ...
The cerebellum is composed of the cerebellar cortex, internal white matter, and deep cerebellar nuclei. These nuclei are the fastigial, interpositus, and dentate nuclei; they mediate most of the output of the cerebellum. This output is directed primarily to motor regions of the brain stem and c ...
