Cortical Circuits: Synaptic Organization of the Cerebral Cortex Structure, Function, and Theory

ISBN-13: 9781468487237 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 224 str.

Jerry White

Opis

This elegant book presents current evidence on the organization of the mammalian cerebral cortex. The focus on synapses and their function provides the basis for understanding how this critical part of the brain could work. Dr. White and his colleague Dr. Keller have collated an impressive mass of material. This makes the crucial information accessible and coherent. Dr. White pioneered an area of investigation that to most others, and occasionally to himself, seemed a bottomless pit of painstaking at- tention to detail for the identification and enumeration of cortical syn- apses. I do not recall that he or anyone else suspected, when he began to publish his now classic papers, that the work would be central to an accelerating convergence of information and ideas from neurobiology and computer science, especially artificial intelligence (AI) (Rumelhart and McClelland, 1986). The brain is the principal organ responsible for the adaptive capacities of animals. What has impressed students of biology, of medicine, and, to an extent, of philosophy is the correlation between the prominence of the cerebral cortex and the adaptive "complexity" of a particular spe- cies. Most agree that the cortex is what sets Homo sapiens apart from other species quantitatively and qualitatively (Rakic, 1988). This is summarized in the first chapter.

Spis treści

I Anatomy.- 1 General Organization of the Cerebral Cortex.- Cortical Areas.- Summary.- Lamination.- Summary.- Vertical Arrangements.- Summary.- Neurotransmitters and Receptors in the Cerebral Cortex.- Summary.- Summary of Chapter 1.- 2 Cell Types.- Pyramidal Cells.- Dendrites and Their Relationships With Cortical Laminae.- Collateral Axonal Branches.- Laminar Relationships of Cortical Efferent Cells.- Neurotransmitters of Pyramidal Cells.- Summary.- Nonpyramidal Cells.- Chandelier Cells.- Basket Cells.- Vertically Oriented Neurons.- Spiny Stellate Cells.- Smooth and Sparsely Shiny Local Plexus Neurons.- Cross-Species Correlations of Nonpyramidal Neuronal Types.- Other Morphological Cell Types.- Summary.- Summary of Chapter 2.- 3 Synaptic Connections Between Identified Elements.- Intrinsic Connections of Pyramidal Neurons.- Local Projections of Superficial Pyramids.- Local Projections of Deep Pyramids.- Summary.- Intrinsic Connections of Nonpyramidal Neurons.- Summary.- Synapses of Extrinsic Afferents With Cortical Neurons.- Summary.- Quantitative Aspects of Circuitry Involving Extrinsic Cortical Afferents.- Summary.- Summary of Chapter 3.- General Aspects of Brain Circuitry.- References for Part I.- II Functional Aspects of Cortical Circuitry.- 4 Functional Properties of Cortical Neurons.- Functional Columns.- Physiological Identification of Functional Columns.- Anatomical Demonstration of Functional Columns.- Receptive Field Properties of Cortical Neurons.- Receptive Field Properties of Somatosensory Neurons.- Receptive Field Properties of Visual Neurons.- Laminar Distribution of Functionally Defined Neurons.- Functional Properties of Morphologically Identified Neurons.- Receptive Field Properties of Identified Neurons.- Pyramidal Neurons.- Nonpyramidal Neurons.- Shape of the Dendritic Tree.- Biophysical Properties of Identified Neurons.- Summary of Chapter 4.- 5 Synaptic Circuitry Revealed by Electrophysiology.- Extrinsic Afférents.- Intrinsic Pathways.- Excitatory Interactions.- Inhibitory Interactions.- Summary of Chapter 5.- 6 GABAergic Inhibition in the Cerebral Cortex.- GABA-Mediated Inhibition.- Anatomical Demonstration of GABAergic Neurons.- Physiological Basis of GABA-Mediated Inhibition.- GABAergic Inhibition and Receptive Fields.- Summary of Chapter 6.- General Aspects of Brain Circuitry (Continued).- References for Part II.- III Facts, Theories, and Models.- 7 An Integrative View of Cortical Circuitry.- Synaptic Triads.- Hierarchical Versus Parallel Processing.- Specificity of Synaptic Connections.- Nonselectivity of Synaptic Connections: The Basis for a Selection Process.- Epilogue.- References for Part III.