I fancy that many of you, like myself, have woken up in the night with a "sleeping" arm or leg. It is a very peculiar feeling to have that arm or leg, cold and lifeless, hanging there at your side as if it were something which does not belong to you. In such situations you recover some of the motor functions before the sensory functions, which en ables you to move the limb like a pendulum. For a few sec onds the arm functions as an artificial limb - a prosthesis without sensors. In general we are not aware of the importance of our sensory organs until we lose them. You do not feel the...

The study of the auditory physiology of reptiles has a relatively long history, but only began in a systematic way in 1956 with the publication of the earliest of Wever's investigations of the cochlear microphonic in reptiles. The long series of experiments which were subsequently undertaken by Wever and his colleagues have been recently conveniently brought together with the publication of Wever's book The Reptile Ear (1978). In the last 10 years, neurophysiological studies at various levels of the auditory system (primarily, however, lower levels), have appeared and produced in a relatively...

1. Themeanrestingmembranepotentialofrattaste cells is - 36 mVunderadap- tation of the tongue to 41.4 mMNaCI and - 50mV under water adaptation. 2. The shapes ofreceptor potentials ofrattastecells inresponsetothe four basic tastestimuli(0.5MNaCI, 0.02 M Q-HCI, 0.01 MHCl, and0.5 M sucrose)are classified into three types, namely (1) a depolarization alone, (2) a depolariza- tion preceded by a transient hyperpolarization, and (3) a hyperpolarization alone. No regenerative spike potentials are evoked in rat taste cells by chemical stimuli. The amplitude of rat taste cell responses increases with...

Sympathetic afferent fibers originate from a visceral organ, course in the thoracolumbar rami communicantes, have cell bodies located in dorsal root ganglia, and terminate in the gray matter of the spinal cord. Sympathetic afferent fibers from the heart transmit information about noxious stimuli associated with myocardial ischemia, i. e. angina pectoris. Previous reviews have described the characteristics of cardiovascular sympathetic afferent fibers (Bishop et al. 1983; Malliani 1982). This review summarizes that work and focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying the complexities of angina...

This monographic work authored by eminent neurophysiologists will be of major interest to researchers investigating the visual system or working in behavioral neuroscience and sleep research. The book deals with the neuronal circuits of the visual thalamocortical system, the brainstem and basal forebrain modulatory systems and their neurotransmitters acting upon these circuits, and the neuronal activities in the visual thalamocortical system as changed during shifts in behavioral states of vigilance from wake to sleep. Data discussed consist of recent studies on light and electron microscopy,...

Rarely have the many mechanisms that might underlie neural plasticity been examined as explicitly as they are in this broad, lavishly illustrated treatment of plasticity in the somatosensory system. The reader is provided with state-of-the-art knowledge of connections at all levels of the somatosensory system. The authors examine the propensity for changes of connectivity in both the mature and developing mammal and make clear proposals regarding the mechanisms underlying these changes. Their functional significance to relevant psychophysical and neurological observations is also discussed.