Experimental Brain Research Series – serie

These are the records of the 7th International Neurobiology Meeting, which was held at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry in September 1975. The Neurobiology meetings started about 20 years ago with the aim of bringing together scientists working on the nervous system with different methods such as anatomy, physiology, endocrinology and biochemistry, and to create a common approach to what is now called "neurosciences". When these meetings were in­ augurated by a few it was decided not to found a society, but to keep them informal and to leave it to the respective host to decide on the program and formate. At the end of each meeting, a small informal committee chose the next host and organizer. In such a way, meetings were held in various places (Amsterdam, Kiel, Stockholm, Oslo, Oxford) and on different subjects such as neuroendocrinology, the limbic and the visual systems, on excitatory and in­ hibitory synaptic mechanisms. The contributions to some of the meetings were published. Also, this time it was discussed whether - in view of the growth, the in­ creasingly structured organization and, at the same time, diversification of the neurosciences - another meeting of this sort should be held. It became during this discussion, that the tradition of these meetings should be con­ tinued, since they can be considered complementary to the formal, all embra­ cing congresses, as an informal gathering of neuroscientists interested in the borader aspects of one particular subject of this still growing discipline.

o. D. CREUTZFELDT, Max-Planck-Institut fUr Biophysikalische Chern ie, D-3400 G6ttingen, FRG In the name of the European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS) and the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, I welcome you to this workshop on Hearing Mechanisms and Speech. It is the aim of EBBS, to tackle brain mechanisms of complex behavioral performances. Language is certainly a complex - haviour, and understanding of language as well. Through language an individual is able to express the internal p- cesses within his brain in symbols of this experience and communicate them to others. This implies also the description of the world in which we live in as far as this world induces, through the sensory organs, activities in our brains. This symbolical representation of the world is, in itself, a real world to which our brain relates itself, in creating and in understanding it (Creutzfeldt, 1979). Therefore, any s- cific language influences thinking and broader aspects of behaviour, and this may explain some of the differences as found between language populations (Herder, 1772iHumboldt, 1836). In as much as the function of language is a symbolical rep- sentation of reality, it must be able to describe this reality, sufficiently and generally. In so far, the rules to which any XIII language is subjected, are dictated by the reality to which we relate ourself through language. These rules are general, and therefore general rules or a universal grammar may be generated, common to all languages (Chomsky, 1965).

The first publications on the presence of renin, angiotensino­ gen and angiotensin-like material in brain tissue appeared about ten years ago. This coincided with the discovery of new biological actions of angiotensin in the brain and with the reinvestigation of already known central angiotensin effects. The possibility that angiotensin could be generated within the brain itself had therefore exciting implications. With the recent popularity of brain neuropeptides, interest in this area is even increasing. The discovery of renin-like activity as well as angiotensino­ gen and angiotensin in the brain has led, admittedly by inductive inference, to the hypothesis of the existence of a complete endogenous renin-angiotensin system in the brain.1 For several years there was ardent discussion whether such a renin angiotensin system existed in the brain or not. Inductive inference always contains "an irrational element or a creative intuition".2In view of the biological relevance of a brain angiotensin system, deductive testing of the hypothesis was a worthwhile scientific project taken up by a number of investigators As a matter of principle it is not given to science, to reach either truth or falsity, scientific statements can only attain contmous degrees of probability whose unat­ tamable upper and lower limits are truth or falsity. However, several of the early singular statements and results turned out to be reproducible and acceptable. The theory has thus so far passed its test and we have found no reason to discard it.

In July of 1989 the 31. International Congress of Physiological Sciences was held in Helsinki. This event in Finland gave us a chance to organize and maintain a satellite symposium on problems of epilepsy from July 4th to 8th, 1989, in Frankfurt-Main. In order to reduce the number of satellite symposia outside of Finland, the president of the IUPS asked different national committees to organize joint meetings. Previously, Dr. Mare~ and Dr. Rokyta had planned to organize a symposium on developmental aspects of epilepsy in Prague, while a meeting in Frankfurt had been planned as an update of a former satellite symposium on physiology and pharmacology of epileptogenic phenomena, held here in 1980. However we were able to combine our efforts by organizing one satellite symposium in Frankfurt entitled: 'PHYSIOLOGY, PHARMACOLOGY and DEVELOPMENT of EPILEPTOGENIC PHENOMENA'. Scientists are generally disappointed about the slow progress in knowledge of their field. We found that by comparing the outcome of the two symposia in 1980 and 1989 a remarkable progress in different, some completely new aspects of the field of experimental epileptogenesis could be realized. Also the new interest in the development of the brain contributed enormously to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying epileptogenic phenomena. We would like to thank all of our colleagues who accepted our invitation to present their recent data and for sending us their manuscripts.

The function of the parietal lobe has been a topic of great interest, its study stimulated by the profound and intriguing perceptual and motor deficits resulting from parietal lobe lesions in humans. The specific role of the parietal cortex has always been a matter of great controversy, with different laboratories emphasizing seemingly exclusive interpretations of parietal lobe functions arranged around a line separating sensory input and motor output, both possibly modulated by attention. Recent work based on awake, behaving monkeys and the study of patients with parietal lobe lesions have unmasked the sensory versus motor dichotomy of parietal lobe function as being both arbitrary and simplistic. The present book conveys the current view of parietal lobe functions, centering around the idea that parietal lobe areas act as true sensorimotor interfaces contributing to the sensory guidance of movement and to the perception of space by offering non-sensory, mental representations of space suited to the needs of the specific task. It is largely based on a conference on parietal lobe functions held in Tiibingen, Germany, in the early summer of 1995. The major goal of this meeting was to further the exchange between neurophysiologists and neuropsychologists interested in this part of the brain. This book aims to cast the productive discussions of this conference into a state-of-the-art overview of present thinking on the role of the parietal lobes and their specific contributions to eye movements, reaching and grasping, attention, perception, and the representation of space.

Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool William.Shakespeare, Twelfth Night 1,5 Since antiquity, it has been a dream of mankind to live in eternal youth and thus to attain longevity. Gods and heroes of the myths of many European cultures were always repre­ sented as young. Their youth was one of their most remark­ able attributes, and eternal youth given to a human being from a god was the greatest act of grace. This age old dream of mankind is demonstrated very graphically in one of the most impressive paintings of the Middle Ages, the famous "Jungbrunnen" (Fountain of Youth) by Lucas Cranach. During recent decades, progress in medical and social areas has increased life expectancy at least in the highly developed countries. Although this longevity does not mean eternal youth, it obviously fulfills the ancient desire of mankind. However, to live longer and longer and thus to become older and older also means to live in infirmity over a longer period of life. Ifprogress in medical science continues at the present rate, longevity will as seems inevitable, increase further. At least at this stage, problems of aging might become as important as problems of development.

The present volume consists of papers prepared for a conference on the cerebellum which was held at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda on 15 -17 May 1980. This was the first gen­ eral conference on the cerebellum since the 1972 symposium in Portland, Oregon, which was convened to celebrate the publica­ tion of the last volume of the Comparative Anatomy and Histolo­ gy of the Cerebellum by Larsell and Jansen. In organizing the 1980 Conference, we elected to emphasize ad­ vances in neuroanatomy over other aspects because, in our view, morphological investigation continues to playa large and essential role in the developing understanding of cerebellar func­ tion, and, despite the general impression that cerebellar anat­ omy is better known than any other part of the nervous system, our information on this topic is far from complete. N everthe­ less, the cerebellum offers the best model we have for analyzing the vertebrate central nervous system. The correlation of ana­ tomical, cytological, developmental, physiological, chemical, and pharmacological data on this relatively simple and uniform structure, which has persisted with remarkable conservatism through vertebrate evolution, still holds a rich store of answers to the most penetrating questions concerning the functional organization of the brain. Naturally, within the limits of time, space, and our resources we could not pretend to include every­ thing that has been learned about the cerebellum in the past decade.

This volume covers the proceedings of a symposium held in Marseille in March 1982 as a satellite meeting of the IBRO First World Congress in Lausanne. About 70 participants from more than ten countries attended the symposium, whose central theme was "Neural Coding of Motor Performance. " Whereas coding within the sensory systems has been dis­ cussed widely, coding in the field of motor control has been analyzed much less. Over the past 10 years an impressive amount of information has been assembled combining re- . cordings in central and peripheral neural structures during the performance of simple and complex motor tasks. Data such as those relating the behavioral phenomena of the awake animal to single-cell recordings from various cerebral areas have been carefully worked out by a number of investigators. It was thought at the symposium that the time had come for this infor­ mation to be collected and reexamined, and presented in one volume. The present book was conceived to cover the scope and significance of coding throughout the nervous system. by "coding" in the central nervous system? This What is meant question can be answered in general by bringing together data and viewpoints from many disciplines - behavior, neurophysi­ ology, neuropharmacology - and clinical observations. Gen­ erally speaking, one may call coding a method of communica­ tion, i. e. , the language that brain cells use for exchange of information.

Since 1972 the European Training Programme in Brain and Behaviour Research (ETP) , a sub-organization of the European Science Foundation, has been organizing a yearly Winterschool in Zuoz, Switzerland. This course with its unique blend of high-mountain air and high-level neuroscience enjoys an immense popularity. The project to organize the 1983 Winterschool on "Sleep Mechanisms", has been an outgrowth of the frequent scientific and personal contacts between the sleep research laboratories at the Universities of ZOrich and Lyon. In selecting the scientific programme we attempted not only to obtain the participation of foremost European groups engaged in the experimental study of sleep, but to emphasize new conceptual and technical approaches. We were fortunate that numerous experts in sleep research readily agreed to participate. The announcement for the course was sent out to 1600 laboratories to call for the application of junior scientists. From the 113 applications that were received from 22 different countries, 40 participants could be selected. When we finally gathered in the Hotel Castell on a beautiful winter evening, 17 European countries and Israel were represented. The week spent together led to many intense, and sometimes heated discussions which frequently continued in the bar until the early morning hours, confir­ ming that sleep researchers are accustomed to work around the clock. At the meeting the unanimous decision was taken that the contributions should be rapidly published in a separate volume to make them accessible to a wider public.

Over 200 neuroscientists met at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Biophysikalische Chemie in Gottingen between April 7th-9th 1983 in order to honour a foreign member of the Institute, namely Sir John Carew Eccles, who celebrated his 80th birthday on January 27th 1983. It was a lively scientific gathering of former students, colleagues and friends of Sir John and Lady Helena. We had all come together from different parts of the world to celebrate this occasion, which gave us the wonderful chance to meet the various members of a large family, united by respect and gratitude for Sir John. The lectures were based on the many themes which have been at the centre of John Eccles' scientific zeal throughout his life. Indeed the chapter headings of this book have been taken from the book titles of Sir John's own work. We would also have liked to publish the discussions which took place after every lecture and to each of which John Eccles contributed in his usual lively manner, but editing them would not have conveyed the stimulating atmosphere, which Sir John created.

To watch a curious young macaque explore and manipulate his immediate surroundings must surely delight and amaze us all. The monkey selects a particular objectfor scrutiny, reaches out and grasps it, handles it delicately with the fingers or more forcibly with the hand, scans the various surfaces with the fin­ ger pads, and finally identifies it. If we compare this monkey's adroitness and discriminative capacities with our own, at once we have a concise statement of important biological similarities and differences among primates. While there are species diffe­ rences in the functional anatomy of the hand, in tactile sensibi­ lity, and in the control of hand movements, these are relatively minor. The real difference in the dexterity of the two species relates to the complexity of the task that is executed: no monkey, and for that matter only one man in a century, paints a Guernica, although an astute investigator can readily teach the monkey to flourish a brush and paint a few strokes. The goal of the symposium, of which this book is a summary, was to examine current knowledge of those cortical mecha­ nisms that determine the sensorimotor functions of the hand that are common to man and the monkey - mechanisms accessible to analysis by recording the responses of single cortical neurons while the monkey explores and manipulates his surroundings.

Historical Perspective In 1842, in a paper entitled "Further Development of a General Law of Vital Periodicity", which was part of a series of seven Lancet papers on periodicities in health and disease, Thomas Laycock wrote: "As everything finite must have a period within which its existence is circumscribed, so every period so circumscribing the finite, being a measure of time, must be divisible into lesser periods. But it has always been found easier to reason from generals to particulars than to ascend from particulars to generals, especially in questions in­ volving the phenomena of life" (p. 423). From a historical perspec­ tive, Laycock's insight indeed anticipated the progress of chronobio­ logic research. In spite of the abundant evidence pointing at the existence of short-term rhythms with periodicities much shorter than 24 hours, termed "ultradian" rhythms after Halberg (1964), it has gen­ erally been found much easier to investigate circadian rather than uI­ tradian rhythms. In m~st cases, ultradian rhythms have been ignored, or dismissed as insignificant phenomena, even in cases where they could be easily "eyeballed" in the data. Laycock himself believed that the most basic periodicity in vital phenomena was 12 hours. Short-term fluctuations in the levels of certain behaviors, which could not be accounted for by external stimulation or by internal stimuli, have been known to ethologists and other observers of animal behavior for many years.

The book on Processes of Recovery from Neural Trauma contains the proceedings of an international symposium which was sponsored by the Weizmann Institute of Science and was held in June 1984 in Israel. One of the central problems in neurobiology and clinical neurology are the processes which underlie the ability of the nervous system to recover from damage. Neurons of the mammalian nervous system cannot be replaced once the generative embryonic period has ended. Thus, recovery after trauma is limited by the degree to which regeneration of damaged neural processes is possible and by the capac­ ity of uninjured neurons to form new synaptic contacts or to use their existing ones more effectively. The lack of successful axon regeneration in the central nervous system is the reason for the permanent damage and the very limited recovery of function seen in victims of traumatic injury. Over the past few years, research on neural trauma has witnessed significant progress, resulting from interdis­ ciplinary research carried out in an increasing number of laboratories throughout the world. Accordingly, the book includes reports on the progress made in the forefront of research in this field. We hope that in addition to being a source of new informa­ tion, readers of the book will be stimulated to work and to generate new ideas and research strategies in this field of research.

The present book is the outcome of a symposium on cal- cium electrogenesis and neuronal functioning, held in January 1985 in the Ringberg Castle of the Max Planck Society, located at the Tegernsee in Bavaria. People from various fields in the neurosciences came together in order to discuss the physiological characteris- tics of calcium currents in nerve cells and the implications for an improved understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of the central nervous system. The chap- ters deal with the physical and pharmacological properties of calcium currents, the role of calcium in neurotransmis- sion and secretion, aspects of neuroplasticity, epilepsy, and their behavioral implications. The 60th anniversary of Hans Dieter Lux served as the occasion to gather a substantial number of his colleagues to one of the most fascinating fields in present neuroscience. We felt that this was the appropriate way to honour Hans Dieter Lux for his impor- tant contributions to our understanding of the central nerv- ous system. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Volkswagen-Stiftung, the German EEG Society, and the Max Planck Society for their support of the symposium.We also wish to express our gratitude to the following com- panies for sponsoring this volume: Fa. List Elektronik, Darmstadt; Fa. Zeiss, Oberkochen; Fa. Sandoz, Basel; Fa. Janssen, Neuss; Fa. Bayer, Leverkusen; Fa. Knoll, Ludwigs- hafen; Fa. Merck, Darmstadt. The editors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Springer-Verlag in editing this book, and the expert secre- tarial assistance of G. Trinkel, U. Roessler, and B.

During the academic year 1984/85 a study group on "Per- ception and Action" was established at the Center for Inter- disciplinary Research of the University of Bielefeld. Among the various activities of this group was a series of symposia. This volume covers the proceedings of one of the sym- posia, held in October 1984 and entitled "Generation and Modulation of Action Patterns". Bringing together scientists from diverse disciplines in gen- eral is challenging, but also hazardous. Aware of the notori- ous communication problems, it was tried to keep the number of representatives of at least the major areas of Neurobiology and Psychology about equal and to elicit pre- sentations that combine experimental findings with theoret- ical statements on major issues in motor control. Despite the different' viewpoints, concepts, research strategies, and methods as they are reflected in the present volume, there was the general impression among the participants that such a multidisciplinary effort was profitable and one step on the way to the realization of common goals and com- mon conceptual grounds.

With the discovery of an ever increasing number of biogenetic polypeptides in the autonomic nervous system, it is evident that nervous transmission is controlled and modified not only by a series of classical transmitters but also by a variety of co-transmitters and modulators. Purifi- cation, characterization and synthesis of neuropeptides and peptide families allows the application of specific anti- bodies for radioimmunological, immunohistochemical and immunocytochemical localization. Transmitter interactions and phenotypic neuronal plasticity can be analyzed by pharmacological or surgical manipulations. Biochemical and autoradiographic determination of specific membrane receptors enables the recognition of peptide target struc- tures. In addition, neurophysiological techniques in combi- nation with histochemical methods result in functional interpretations. With regard to somatic manifestations of autonomic nervous disturbances these studies will offer fundamental insights for clinical medicine.This volume contains the refereed proceedings of recent investigations on histochemistry and cell biology of auton- omic neurons and paraganglia which were presented at an international colloquium on nervous transmission in Heidelberg in September 1986. The colloquium was origi- nally planned to be held under the presidency of Olavi Eranko but was continued by the editor after his death. It was sponsored by the German Research Foundation and took place on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Heidelberg University "Ruperto Carola" as part of the pro- gram in the international "Wissenschaftsforum". Hopefully, the information provided in this book will stimu- late new ideas and research strategies in the field of neu roscience.

This book attempts to clarify a relatively new problem in the area of brain-behavior relationships, namely the link between emotions and hemispheric specialization. The contributions by leading specialists integrate theoretical models of emotions in normal subjects with results of experimental investigations conducted in patients with unilateral brain lesions. The communicative aspects of emotions and the inner experience of emotions as well as the concomitant autonomous changes are separately investigated and discussed.

Recently, the role of the olivocerebellar projection in cerebellar operation has drawn the attention of many scientists who are trying to understand how the cerebellum controls movements. The papers published in this book were presented at a meeting held in Turin on August 9-12, 1987 as a satellite symposium of the 2nd World IBRO Congress in Budapest. It was planned in collaboration with Rodolfo Llinas and Masao Ito, although the latter was not able to attend. Some of the papers are in the form of reviews, others are short communications of new unpublished results. All aspects of research on the inferior olive are covered including morphology, neurotransmission, development, and electrophysiology, as well as its relation to behaviour and to human pathology. The lively, endless scientific discussions have not been published, but the reader may well imagine them from the different and sometimes contrasting pOints of views expressed in the papers. There are many examples showing that integrity of the inferior olive is necessary for some forms of motor learning and for the adaptive capabilities ofthe motor system. On the other hand, there is evidence that the inferior olive is important in controlling the dynamic characteristics of movement, both as a phasic and as a tonic operator. From this, two main viewpoints have emerged. The "plasticitists" attribute the role of inducing plastic changes to the synapse between the climbing fibre and the Purkinje cell.

This volume is based on the contributions presented at the symposium "Comparative Aspects of the Structure and Develop­ ment of the Forebrain in Lower Vertebrates", held on September 2-3, 1988, as a Satellite to the Annual Meeting of the European Neuroscience Association at the University of Zurich-Irchel. Within the two days the symposium lasted, the main topic, of course, had to be covered in an exemplary rather than a comprehensive way. However, the comparative interpretation of results revealed many similarities of forebrain organization in the wide spectrum of species considered. Besides a great deal of new data on forebrain structure and development, this book contains attempts based on various new methodological approaches to find homologies between brain structures of non mammalian vertebrates and mammals. Although we are still far from having unequivocal solutions for the latter problem, the contributions to this volume illustrate impres­ sively that comparative neuroscientists have better chances than ever of gaining new insights since they now have at their disposal a still increasing number of refined anatomical and physiological techniques such as immunocytochemistry, tract tracing of inject­ ed markers, and intracellular stimulation and recording. A promi­ nent contribution from the rapidly evolving field of molecular biology can be anticipated. A lot of stock taking will have to be done; yet, the bulk of studies using modern methods have been dealing with the mammalian brain.

The primate forearm is capable of an infinite variety of motions which are performed with power, speed, and finesse. How the brain generates and controls such movements has intrigued and baffled students of motor control for centuries. However, progress toward the better understanding of arm movement control is now being made by researchers in several disciplines. This volume brings together contributions from the fields of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, behavior, and computational neuroscience. Each chapter presents recent data from current research topics relevant to the problem of controlling arm and hand movements. The multidisciplinary approach adopted in this volume reflects the current trend to combine the methodologies of neuroscience with those of engineering. In this sense, special emphasis has been given to computational developments which have their basis in recent experimental results. Correlations between behavioral motor variables and neural activity in various brain regions, the neural mechanisms of reaching and manipulation control and their underlying visuomotor transformation, and the internal neuronal representation of motor space as seen through population codes, are the main topics treated at both physiological and computational level. . We hope that this volume will help both physiologists to better understand the theoretical bases underlying the neural control of movement, and students of neural networks to adopt more biologically-oriented approaches in their development of new computational strategies.

The phenomenon known as Leao's spreading depression isinvestigated in this collection of ten original articles.New ideas about the fundamental mechanisms, which focus onthe involvement of polyunsaturated fatty acids and freeradicals, are presented. The relationship of spreadingdepression with clinical entities such as migraine,epilepsy, ischemic and protein-deficiency conditions of thenervous tissue are discussed as well. Studies dealing withthe application of non-invasive techniques to monitor thedisease are included.

On April 1, 1992, Otto Creutzfeldt would have celebrated his 65th birthday. About a year before, those of us who worked with him in the Department of Neurobiology decided to organize a meeting to honour Otto and his contri­ butions to neuroscience. Since Otto Creutzfeldt had no intention of retiring before his 67th birthday, this was not to be a "retirement conference" but a celebration on the occasion of a major anniversary. However. events turned out differently. In the spring of 1991, Otto Creutzfeldt became seriously ill, before we could consult with him on his suggestions for such a meeting, and we decided to postpone further dis­ cussion until his health improved. In the summer, when we talked to him about the meeting, he basically approved of the idea but immediately sug­ gested our turning it into a proper scientific congress, rather than limiting ourselves to inviting his friends and former co-workers. He had very good friends in many parts of the world and would certainly have liked to see many of them again. However, his interest in science remained the domi­ nant factor. He proposed the main topics for the conference and suggested several speakers to be invited. Although he knew that his health was crit­ ical and that his condition could rapidly worsen, we had the feeling that the planning gave him hope and perhaps an opportunity to look forward.