Main description:

This book first reviews the case that brain oscillations not only are important for cognition, as long suspected, but also play a part in the expression of signs and symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders. The cellular mechanisms of many of the clinically relevant oscillations have been studied by the authors and their colleagues, using in vitro slice methods as well as detailed computer simulations. A surprising insight is that gap junctions between principal
neurons play an absolutely critical role in so many types of oscillation in neuronal populations; oscillations are not just the result of properties of individual neurons and their synaptic connections. Furthermore, the way in which gap junctions produce oscillations in the cortex is novel, involving as
it does global properties of networks, rather than just the time constants of membrane currents. This insight has implications for therapeutics as well as for our understanding of normal brain functions.

Contents:

Abbreviations

Section I. Overview of normal and abnormalcortical oscillations.

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Historical Prelude

Chapter 3. Overview of in vivo cortical oscillations

Chapter 4. Epilepsy.

Chapter 5. Parkinson's Disease

Chapter 6. Schizophrenia

Chapter 7. Cerebellar Ataxia

Section II. Basic properties of single neurons and gap junctions.

Chapter 8. Single Neurons

Chapter 9. Basic properties of gap junctions

Section III. Some in vitro oscillations

Chapter 10. Very fast ocsillations (VFO)

Chapter 11. Gap junction-dependent cortical beta2 oscillations (20 - 30 Hz)

Chapter 12. Gap junction-dependent persistent gamma oscillaitons (30 - 70 Hz)

Chapter 13. Epileptiform discharges in vitro

Section IV. Implications for Health and Disease

Chapter 14: Conclusion
Index