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Waking and the Reticular Activating System in Health and Disease provides a comprehensive overview on the "activating” properties of the RAS. In health, the RAS provides the basis against which we assess the external world, and in disease it distorts that world and shatters our self-image. This book describes the physiology of each process, how it is disturbed in each disorder, and what the most appropriate treatment should be.
Dr. Garcia-Rill, along with contributions from leading specialists, discusses the understanding of the RAS as a system not only modulating waking, but also in charge of survival mechanisms such as fight vs flight responses and reflexes. The full spectrum of these functions helps explain the complexity of symptoms evident in such disorders as disparate as schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. The book reviews the mechanisms that control waking and arousal, and especially how those mechanisms malfunction in certain neurological and psychiatric disorders.
List of contents
1. Governing Principles of Brain Activity 2. The EEG and the Discovery of the RAS 3. Other Regions Modulating Waking 4. Wiring Diagram of the RAS 5. Development and the RAS 6. Ascending Projections of the RAS 7. Descending Projections of the RAS 8. The 10 Hz Fulcrum 9. Gamma Band Activity 10. Preconscious Awareness 11. Psychiatric Disorders and the RAS 12. Neurological Disorders and the RAS 13. The RAS and Drug Abuse 14. The Science of Waking and Public Policy
About the author
Dr. Edgar Garcia-Rill is a Professor of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences, and Psychiatry in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He also holds graduate faculty appointments in the Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences and Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences program. He is the Director of the Center for Translational Neuroscience, a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence.
Report
"...an excellent book...I highly recommend it to clinicians involved in diagnosing and treating patients with sleep and neuropsychiatric disorders. Score: 91 - 4 Stars" --Doody's
