Main description:

Axons are neuronal output elements and are responsible for the transfer and processing of signals from one neuron to another, even over very large distances. For a given neuronal cell type, axons are unique and display very heterogeneous patterns with respect to shape, length and target structure. Axons are the usually long process of a nerve fiber that generally conducts impulses away from the body of the nerve cell. This book is intended to summarize recent findings covering morphological, physiological, developmental, computational and pathophysiological aspects of axons. It attempts to cover new findings concerning axonal structure and functions together with their implications for signal transduction, processes implicated in the formation of axonal arbors and the transport of subcellular elements to their targets, and finally how a dysfunction in one or several of these steps could lead to axonal degeneration and ultimately to neurodegenerative diseases.

Contents:

Preface
Foreword
Part I: Axons in development
1. Molecular Aspects of Commissural Axon Guidance
Vera Niederkofler and Esther T. Stoeckli

2. Subplate and the formation of the earliest cerebral cortical circuits
Zoltan Molnar, Wei Zhi Wang, Maria Carmen Pinon, Shinichi Kondo, Franziska Oeschger and Anna Hoerder-Saubedissen

Part II: Axonal function
3. Sodium signals and their significance for axonal function
Tony Kelly and Christine R. Rose

4. New insights in information processing in the axon
Dominique Debanne and Sami Boudkkazi

5. Electrical coupling of axons
Gunnar Birke, Dietmar Schmitz and Andreas Draguhn

6. To myelinate or not to myelinate?
Quan Wen and Dmitri B. Chklovskii

Part III: Axons and neuronal circuits
7. An axonal perspective on cortical circuits
Tom Binzegger, Rodney J. Douglas, and Kevan A. C. Martin

8. Axonal projections as predictors of neuronal connectivity
Moritz Helmstaedter and Dirk Feldmeyer

9. The axon of excitatory neurons in the neocortex: Projection pat-terns and target specificity
Joachim H.R. Lubke and Dirk Feldmeyer

Part IV: Axons and degeneration/regeneration
10. Axon degeneration: Mechanisms and consequences
Lucy J. Broom and V. Hugh Perry

11. Regeneration after CNS lesion: Help from the immune system?
Sven Hendrix and Robert Nitsch