The Other Brain by R Douglas Fields
Despite everything that has been written about the brain, a potentially critical part of this vital organ has been overlooked--until now. The Other Brain examines the growing importance of glia, which make up approximately 85 percent of the cells in the brain, and the role they play in how the brain functions, malfunctions, and heals itself. Long neglected as little more than cerebral packing material, glia (meaning glue) are now known to regulate the flow of information between neurons and to repair the brain and spinal cord after injury and stroke. But scientists are also discovering that diseased and damaged glia play a significant role in psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression, and in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Diseased glia cause brain cancer and multiple sclerosis and are linked to infectious diseases such as HIV and prion disease (mad cow disease, for example) and to chronic pain. The more we learn about these cells that make up the other brain, the more important they seem to be. Written by a neuroscientist who is a leader in glial research, The Other Brain gives readers a much more complete understanding of how the brain works and an intriguing look at potentially revolutionary developments in brain science and medicine.
Fields, R. Douglas: - Douglas Fields, PhD, is a neuroscientist and an international authority on nervous system development and plasticity. He received advanced degrees from UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, UC San Diego, and he held postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and Yale Universities before joining the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has published over 150 articles in scientific journals and books from his experimental research into how the brain is modified by experience, and the cellular mechanisms of memory. His scientific research has been featured internationally in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, including the National Geographic, ABC News Nightline, andNPR Morning Edition. His research on nervous system plasticity involving non-neuronal cells (glia) in white matter regions of the brain, is recognized as pioneering a new non-synaptic mechanism of nervous system plasticity. In 2004, he founded the scientific journal Neuron Glia Biology, to advance research on interactions between neurons and glia, and he serves on the editorial boards of several neuroscience journals.
In addition to his scientific research, Dr. Fields is author of numerous books and magazine article about the brain written for the general reader, including The Other Brain, about brain cells that communicate without using electricity (glia), and Why We Snap, about the neuroscience of sudden aggression, as well as numerous articles in popular magazines including Outside Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Scientific American and Scientific American Mind, Time, Undark, Quanta, and on-line columns for The Huffington Post, Psychology Today, Scientific American, the Society for Neuroscience, BrainFacts, and others, and he is scientific advisor to Scientific American Mind.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780743291415 |
| ISBN 10 | 0743291417 |
| Title | The Other Brain |
| Author | R Douglas Fields |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Year published | 2010-01-13 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |