Norman E. Spear - Böcker

This book describes a unique combination of research programs based on a striking variety of hypotheses and procedures directed toward understanding the sources and consequences of neurobehavioral plasticity. This remarkable attribute of the nervous system -- to be pliable and capable of being shaped or formed by natural or artificial sources toward adaptation or maladaptation -- is considered in terms of the neurochemical forces and neuroanatomical structure that has been found to be pivotal for this function. The impetus for this volume was a symposium held to honor Robert L. Isaacson for his scientific and pedagogical achievements as well as his contributions to behavioral neuroscience. Corresponding to his three major research interests, the book is divided into three sections as follows:* the first explores the relationship between the limbic system and behavior, with an emphasis on learning and memory;* the second considers -- through a wide range of approaches -- issues of plasticity in behavior and brain; and * the third deals with neural and chemical determinants of normal and abnormal behavior.This volume is not only a fitting tribute to Isaacson, but also an unusual collection of new evidence, procedures, and theories destined to have significant influence on behavioral neuroscience.

This is the first volume that focuses on the lifespan neurobehavioral factors likely to determine susceptibility to alcohol abuse and its consequences. The chapters offer careful analysis of the effects of ethanol on the fetus, the infant, the adolescent, and the adult. The authors include behavioral neuroscientists and clinical neuropsychologists. Their topics range from the neurochemical and neuroanatomical consequences of prenatal alcohol to the cognitive consequences of prenatal alcohol on preschool and school-age children. The impact of genetics on sensitivity to alcohol is considered in terms of analytic tests using techniques of behavioral genetics and molecular biology. The consequences of exposure to alcohol during breastfeeding are described in experiments with human infants. The alcoholism that develops in adulthood is analyzed through the experimental study of relapse from alcohol deprivation and assessment of neuropsychological impairments and treatment for alcoholics. Drawing on extensive research that has applied techniques from molecular neurobiology and tests of learning and memory to the clinical assessment and treatment of alcoholics.The volume answers recent questions raised by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Drug Abuse about the role of early experience in susceptibility to later abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Although epidemiological studies can describe the problem, solutions in terms of mechanisms that mediate these effects will be found only with the kinds of experimentally oriented approaches the chapter authors describe.

This is the first volume that focuses on the lifespan neurobehavioral factors likely to determine susceptibility to alcohol abuse and its consequences. The chapters offer careful analysis of the effects of ethanol on the fetus, the infant, the adolescent, and the adult. The authors include behavioral neuroscientists and clinical neuropsychologists. Their topics range from the neurochemical and neuroanatomical consequences of prenatal alcohol to the cognitive consequences of prenatal alcohol on preschool and school-age children. The impact of genetics on sensitivity to alcohol is considered in terms of analytic tests using techniques of behavioral genetics and molecular biology. The consequences of exposure to alcohol during breastfeeding are described in experiments with human infants. The alcoholism that develops in adulthood is analyzed through the experimental study of relapse from alcohol deprivation and assessment of neuropsychological impairments and treatment for alcoholics. Drawing on extensive research that has applied techniques from molecular neurobiology and tests of learning and memory to the clinical assessment and treatment of alcoholics.The volume answers recent questions raised by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Drug Abuse about the role of early experience in susceptibility to later abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Although epidemiological studies can describe the problem, solutions in terms of mechanisms that mediate these effects will be found only with the kinds of experimentally oriented approaches the chapter authors describe.

This book describes a unique combination of research programs based on a striking variety of hypotheses and procedures directed toward understanding the sources and consequences of neurobehavioral plasticity. This remarkable attribute of the nervous system -- to be pliable and capable of being shaped or formed by natural or artificial sources toward adaptation or maladaptation -- is considered in terms of the neurochemical forces and neuroanatomical structure that has been found to be pivotal for this function. The impetus for this volume was a symposium held to honor Robert L. Isaacson for his scientific and pedagogical achievements as well as his contributions to behavioral neuroscience. Corresponding to his three major research interests, the book is divided into three sections as follows:* the first explores the relationship between the limbic system and behavior, with an emphasis on learning and memory;* the second considers -- through a wide range of approaches -- issues of plasticity in behavior and brain; and * the third deals with neural and chemical determinants of normal and abnormal behavior.This volume is not only a fitting tribute to Isaacson, but also an unusual collection of new evidence, procedures, and theories destined to have significant influence on behavioral neuroscience.

Originally published in 1979, this volume contains chapters prepared following a conference at SUNY- Binghamton in 1977. The conference was the outcome of exciting new developments that had occurred in the ontogeny of learning and memory at the time, as well as a long-standing friendship between the editors. Many changes had taken place in the years leading up to this volume and there were now many more researchers active in the field. This volume reflected the rapidly changing state of this research area at the time and includes early contributions from researchers now well established in the field.

Originally published in 1978, this volume contains the evidence that is most crucial for our understanding the processes of forgetting and retention. Organized in terms of problem areas and issues that are particularly pertinent to understanding these processes, the book deals with both animal and human studies. The author begins by defining the topic and reviewing its historical development. A theoretical orientation follows, and then the author begins to address the major factors that determine what is, and what is not, remembered. Although we cannot yet specify the principles from which we can predict when an episode, once learned, will be remembered well or forgotten entirely, the author demonstrates that such principles are not that far away. He considers the issues that must be resolved before such principles are established, and in the course of doing so covers the major research on why we remember events and why they are forgotten.

What we know about the world and its opportunities limits what we do. If we do not know that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, we will not follow it. If we do not know that a desert cactus contains water, we will not cut into it for sustenance. Often, however, we do know things about the world and yet the knowledge does not seem to be reflected in behavior. Explaining this fact simply in terms of inadequate motivation for expression or incomplete memory for the important in­ formation does not really add much to our understanding. The ex­ pression of knowledge can be interrupted in very special ways by a variety of more specific conditions-fatigue, sources of forgetting that may include failure of memory retrieval, emotion, and various dysfunc­ tions of brain and body systems-that are not satisfactorily incorporated by any current theories of motivation or memory. Also, a dissociation between knowledge and its expression can take the form of applying knowledge without apparent awareness of this action, a phenomenon that requires complicated assumptions for explanation in terms of either motivation or memory. Dissociations between knowledge and action may be striking. After driving home on a familiar route we may not be able to report whether the last three traffic lights were red or green; yet we must have re­ sponded appropriately to them.

Originally published in 1978, this volume contains the evidence that is most crucial for our understanding the processes of forgetting and retention. Organized in terms of problem areas and issues that are particularly pertinent to understanding these processes, the book deals with both animal and human studies. The author begins by defining the topic and reviewing its historical development. A theoretical orientation follows, and then the author begins to address the major factors that determine what is, and what is not, remembered. Although we cannot yet specify the principles from which we can predict when an episode, once learned, will be remembered well or forgotten entirely, the author demonstrates that such principles are not that far away. He considers the issues that must be resolved before such principles are established, and in the course of doing so covers the major research on why we remember events and why they are forgotten.