Handbook of Basal Ganglia Structure and Function

Handbook of Basal Ganglia Structure and Function, Second Edition, offers an integrated overview of the structural and functional aspects of the basal ganglia, highlighting clinical relevance. The basal ganglia, a group of forebrain nuclei interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and brainstem, are involved in numerous brain functions, such as motor control and learning, sensorimotor integration, reward, and cognition.

These nuclei are essential for normal brain function and behavior, and their importance is further emphasized by the numerous and diverse disorders associated with basal ganglia dysfunction, including Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, Huntington’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, dystonia, and psychostimulant addiction.

This updated edition has been thoroughly revised to provide the most up-to-date account of this critical brain structure. Edited and authored by internationally acclaimed basal ganglia researchers, the new edition contains ten entirely new chapters that offer expanded coverage of anatomy and physiology, detailed accounts of recent advances in cellular/molecular mechanisms and cellular/physiological mechanisms, and critical, deeper insights into the behavioral and clinical aspects of basal ganglia function and dysfunction.

• Synthesizes widely dispersed information on the behavioral neurobiology of the basal ganglia, including advances in the understanding of anatomy, cellular/molecular and cellular/physiological mechanisms, and behavioral and clinical aspects of function and dysfunction
• Written by international authors who are preeminent researchers in the field
• Explores, in full, the clinically relevant impact of the basal ganglia on various psychiatric and neurological diseases

Heinz Steiner is Professor and Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the Chicago Medical School/Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Steiner is an expert on the functional organization of the basal ganglia and related brain systems. His research focuses, in particular, on the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the regulation of basal ganglia–cortical interactions; his recent investigations examine how chronic enhancement of dopamine actions produce changes in gene regulation, and how these molecular alterations affect basal ganglia function and behavior. He has been the North America Regional Editor for the journal Basal Ganglia since 2011.

Kuei Y. Tseng is Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the Chicago Medical School/Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Tseng’s research focuses on the neural bases of Parkinson’s disease, particularly the effects of dopamine loss within the cortico–basal ganglia circuitry and the mechanisms underlying information processing in the brains of individuals affected by Parkinson’s disease. He is the editor of two books on the cortex.