Understanding the role of neural activity in the development of the brain has been a major concern of many modern neurobiologists. The reason is plain enough: since the world influences the brain by means of action potentials and synaptic potentials, activity must be the chief cause of the neural changes wrought by experience. This 1994 volume explores the hypothesis that neural activity generated by experience modulates the ongoing growth of the brain during maturation, thus sculpting in each of us a unique nervous system according to the events of our early life. Brain growth is considered at a macroscopic level by examining brain maps and their modular substructure, and at a cellular level by investigating the neuronal interactions that influence the formation and maintenance of these structures. The ways that experience influences the maturation of the brain at both macroscopic and microscopic levels are described, and the conventional wisdom is re-examined.

Customer reviews

Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review

Log in to review

Review was not posted due to profanity
×

, create a review

(If you're not , sign out)

Please enter the right captcha value

Please enter a star rating.

Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

How do you rate this item?

Reviews must contain at least 12 words about the product.

×

Product details
- Date Published: June 1994
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521455701
- length: 126 pages
- dimensions: 229 x 140 x 8 mm
- weight: 0.2kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Lecture I: Maps:
1. Brain growth and its potential significance
2. A contrary view of brain development
3. Brain maps
4. Measurement of maps in the developing brain
5. Conclusion
Part II. Lecture II: Modules:
6. Discovery and definition
7. The significance of modularity
8. The development of modular circuitry
9. Conclusion
Part III. Lecture III: Trophic Interactions:
10. Qualitative and quantitative accuracy of neural connections
11. Getting the numbers right
12. The importance of target cell geometry in quantitative accuracy
13. Does setting the value of convergence involve synapse elimination?
14. A basis for the interactions that determine convergence
15. The nature of trophic signals
16. Conclusion
Part IV. Lecture IV: Activity:
17. How neural activity might lead to information storage
18. The effects of activity in the developing visual system
19. An alternative interpretation of the effects of visual deprivation
20. Some pertinent observations in the peripheral nervous system
21. Neural activity and the growth of the brain
22. Some caveats
23. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

General Resources

Resources

Find resources associated with this title

Back to resources home

Type	Name	Unlocked *	Format	Size

Showing of

This title is supported by one or more locked resources. Access to locked resources is granted exclusively by Cambridge University Press to lecturers whose faculty status has been verified. To gain access to locked resources, lecturers should sign in to or register for a Cambridge user account.

Please use locked resources responsibly and exercise your professional discretion when choosing how you share these materials with your students. Other lecturers may wish to use locked resources for assessment purposes and their usefulness is undermined when the source files (for example, solution manuals or test banks) are shared online or via social networks.

Supplementary resources are subject to copyright. Lecturers are permitted to view, print or download these resources for use in their teaching, but may not change them or use them for commercial gain.

If you are having problems accessing these resources please contact [email protected].