Aging and Recovery of Function in the Central Nervous System

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Longevity, Disease, and Autoimmune Reactions following Focal Cortical Injuries

   • Stanley Finger, David Wozniak, Herman Blumenthal

   Pages 1-21

3. Aging and Hypothalamic Regulation of Metabolic, Autonomic, and Endocrine Function

   • C. Robert Almli

   Pages 23-42

4. Morphological Measurements in the Aging Rat Cerebral Cortex

   • Marian C. Diamond, James R. Connor

   Pages 43-56

5. Morphological Aspects of Brain Damage in Aging

   • Stephen W. Scheff, Kevin Anderson, Steven T. DeKosky

   Pages 57-85

6. Relationship of the Raphe and Suprachiasmatic Nuclei to Serotonin Facilitation of Cyclic Reproductive Functions in Aging Female Rats

   • Richard F. Walker

   Pages 87-99

7. Behavioral Consequences of Neuronal Plasticity following Injury to Nigrostriatal Dopaminergic Neurons

   • John F. Marshall

   Pages 101-128

8. Do Rats Have Hypotheses?

   • M. Lisa Valentino, Donald G. Stein

   Pages 129-152

9. Age, Brain Damage, and Behavioral Recovery

   • Arthur J. Nonneman, John P. Vicedomini, James V. Corwin, Stephen D. Curtis, Walter L. Isaac

   Pages 153-167

10. Age and Recovery from Brain Damage

    • Harvey S. Levin, Linda Ewing-Cobbs, Arthur L. Benton

    Pages 169-205

11. Recovery of Function in Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

    • Steven T. DeKosky

    Pages 207-217

12. Back Matter

    Pages 219-221

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The mammalian central nervous system is a remarkable structure which has attracted many new investigators, as evidenced by the dramatic increase in scientific publications dealing with neurobiology. Every day basic scientists conduct new and exciting experiments, resulting in remarkable discoveries des­ tined to help mankind. Unfortunately many of these new findings are slow to be accepted by the clinical world. This is especially true in the area of brain trauma, where the present prognosis is usually very poor. We have known for quite some time that the mammalian central nervous system is capable of compensating for severe damage in many different ways, and under some circumstances behav­ ioral compensation can be observed. However, much is still to be learned about the various factors and events that lead to functional recovery and those condi­ tions that do not. It is this challenge that originally excited a number of the contributors to this volume to explore the subject of recovery from brain damage. One factor in particular that is known to change the prognosis of recovery is the age of the organism at the time of the damage. This book is an attempt to explore this important variable. Most of the literature concerning aging deals with widespread degenerative changes and paints a grim picture for the aging central nervous system in terms of recovery of function following trauma.

• Alzheimer
• age
• aging
• anatomy
• animals
• behavior
• biology
• brain
• cell
• cortex
• dementia
• histology
• neurobiology
• physiology
• senescence

• College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA

  Stephen W. Scheff

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