Brain and Heart Dynamics

This ambitious and comprehensive handbook represents an essential contribution to our current understanding of interactions between heart and brain, a research topic generating growing interest.
Despite the increasing awareness that neural mechanisms are the primary cause of cardiac disease and its progression, therapy continues to focus on end-organ protection and does not approach the neural core of the problem. Growing public health problems such as heart failure are still treated with autonomic drugs that are 30-40 years old and simply act on cardiac receptors. However, it has now been shown that the progression of ischemic heart disease to heart failure is mainly due to abnormal central responses to incipient cardiac disease, with neural activation the primary cause rather than the consequence of cardiac remodeling.

Written by leading international experts in their respective research areas, the book presents a variety of perspectives on the core topic: from social and philosophical to gender-related aspects.
It is designed for a broad readership and  includes dedicated sections for cardiologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and psychotherapists looking for a more insightful and targeted approach to neuro-cardiovascular disease. 

• Brain-heart axis
• Brain-heart communication
• Brain-Heart Efferent Pathways
• Cardiac Innervation
• Cardiac Homeostasis
• Heart Activity and Cognition
• Emotional Processing and Heart Activity
• Biofeedback
• Depression and Cardiovascular Disease
• Bipolar Disorder and cardiovascular risk
• Cardiovascular Manifestations of Anxiety and Panic
• Cardiac Transplantation and Psychopathology
• Heart Diseases and Dementias
• Heart and Stroke
• Heart and Parkinson disease
• Neurocardiac Syndromes
• Psychiatric Effects of Cardiovascular Drugs
• Neurological Effects of Cardiovascular Drugs
• Cardiovascular Effects of Psychiatric Drugs
• Interdisciplinary care

• Department of Drug Sciences, Section of Pharmacology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

  Stefano Govoni

• Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

  Pierluigi Politi

• Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

  Emilio Vanoli

Stefano Govoni born in Milano, Italy, in 1950, is Full Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Drug Sciences at the University of Pavia. He has worked in various Italian Universities (Bari, Brescia, Milano, Pavia) and back in 1979–81 at NIMH, St. Elizabeths hospital, Washington, D.C.

At the University of Pavia he has been director of the Department of Experimental and Applied Pharmacology, President of the Evaluation Office, Chancellor’s Deputy for teaching activities, and Vice-Chancellor. Stefano Govoni has been Consultant for Biological Research Programs, Alzheimer Unit, FBF Hospital, Brescia; member of various ethical committees; and director of the Bioethical Committee of the San Matteo Hospital in Pavia, Italy.

Stefano Govoni has worked on brain aging and on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) contributing to the definition of the neurobiology and physiology of beta amyloid and to the characterization of the antidementia drugs. In 2010, together with Emilio Vanoli, he started a search on the role of NGF in heart disease and is co-founder of a spin-off “Neuheart” working within this field. Recently he started a search on the therapeutic appropriateness of drugs used in nursing homes and in the elderly. In the period 2000–2011 he has been the national coordinator of a group of six laboratories belonging to various Italian universities (Pavia, Genoa, Catania, Florence, Foggia, Palermo) working on AD.

Stefano Govoni is author of more than 330 papers listed in Medline and some 20 books.

Pierluigi Politi is Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pavia, Italy, and Head of Mental Health and Dependencies Department of ASST Pavia, the Regional Health Trust in Italy, and Head of the Specialization School in Psychiatry. He is also member of tEACH, the didactic subunit of International Association for Communication in Healthcare, and Full Member of the International Psychoanalytical Association.

His interest in heart and brain dynamics dates back to his Ph.D. years, when he supported the heart transplantation team at Pavia, Policlinico San Matteo Foundation; he provided evaluation of the candidates and follow-up of more than one thousand recipients. More recently, he focused his research and clinical work on autism spectrum disorders, through an intense cooperation with Cascina Rossago, the first Italian farmcommunity tailored for low-functioning people with autism. He thus developed bench to bedside research, besides new strategies of intervention, becoming a point of reference for the special talents in autism spectrum disorders. He also promoted some innovative job opportunities and a better quality of life in people belonging to this condition.

He authored/coauthored/edited 14 books, many books chapters, and some 140 papers on peer-reviewed journals. Being also an amateur jazz musician, he founded the Orchestra Invisibile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orches tra_Invisibile) in 2005, a large jazz band, where one half of musicians belong to the autism spectrum condition.

Emilio Vanoli Graduated in Medicine with laude and specialization in Cardiology at the University of Milano. He has been involved in basic science and clinical research on autonomic nervous system cardiac control since his 4th year med school. Emilio was trained at the Centro Fisiologia Clinica and Ipertensione at the University of Milano, and he developed his research at the Department of Physiology at the University of Oklahoma HSC where he reached the position of adjunct Associate Professor of physiology and cardiology.

His major achievement here was the first experimental evidence of feasibility and efficacy of chronic implantable vagal stimulation in ischemic heart disease. Emilio is author and/or coauthor of 96 full-length papers and editor of 3 books. He is currently teaching at the International Harvey School of Medicine at the University of Pavia as Associate Professor of Cardiology in the Department of Molecular Medicine. He is sharing with Prof. Govoni the scienti fic direction of the academic spin-off named “Neu-Heart ” whose first mission is active research on the Nerve Growth Factor (NGF). Clinically wise, he practiced as family doctor for 13 years in the Italian public healthcare system. Emilio was member of the intensive Coronary Care Unit staff at the IRCCS San Matteo Hospital in Pavia. He established his role in the area of autonomic treatment of heart failure as member of CIBIS II and III trials event committee.

Emilio is currently director of the outpatients Heart Failure Clinic at the IRCCS MultiMedica in Sesto San Giovanni (reference Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center for the Italian Ministry of Health Care) supported by extensive public funding to implement remote home monitoring of fragile patients.

Policies and ethics