神经生物学

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 ...

Disorders of learning and/or memory are commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease and are often regarded as among the earliest changes that can be detected in individuals developing this disease. However, several other disease states, such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and Korsa ...

When an organism is exposed to a stressor, a series of behavioral changes occur that are thought to be of adaptive value. Among other things, the response style of an organism will narrow to those innate responses highest in the animal’s defensive repertoire (see belles, 1970) or to responses previou ...

It is now widely accepted that depressive disorders in humans are heterogeneous. Therefore, it is very likely that several distinctly different animal models of depression can be useful. Because of the heterogeneity of the manifestations of depressive disorders, it is important for dev ...

The creation or discovery of animal models of psychiatric conditions, such as major depressive disorder, is fraught with many problems that are not encountered in the development of models in other areas of medicine. Some of these problems are the result of the apparent nature and complexity of t ...

The existence of circadian rhythms, near 24-hour patterns of variation in biological functions, has been well established in many species. There is currently a great deal of interest in whether or not disturbed circadian rhythms are involved in the pathogenesis or etiology of some types of psy ...

The present chapter reviews the effects of antipanic and panicogenic treatments in several animal models of anxiety, all of which have exhibited some degree of predictive validity based on positive effects following acute administration of benzodiazepine and barbiturate anxio ...

Anxiety is a term used to describe both a normal emotional state associated with stressful or psychologically difficult events and a pathological condition. When anxiety is chronic and is not clearly linked to well-defined events, it is generally considered abnormal and appropriate for ...