Compulsive drug-taking behavior develops in vulnerable individuals who ingest substances that activate the reward system. This intense activation produces learned associations to cues that predict drug availability. With repetition the reward system becomes reflexively activated by cues alone, leading to a drive toward drug-taking. The central nervous system changes underlying this conditioned ...

Grafman, in this issue, discusses four forms of neuroplasticity that may account for development and recovery of functional neural networks in the human brain. These include homologous area adaptation, cross-modal reassignment, map extension, and compensatory masquerade. The following discussion focuses on these forms of neuroplasticity as they pertain to recovery of language function in aphasi...

An operant-conditioning protocol that bases reward on the electromyographic response produced by a specific CNS pathway can change that pathway. For example, in both animals and people, an operant-conditioning protocol can increase or decrease the spinal stretch reflex or its electrical analog, the H-reflex. Reflex change is associated with plasticity in the pathway of the reflex as well as els...

Alcoholism is characterized by a lack of control over excessive alcohol consumption despite significant negative consequences. This impulsive and compulsive behavior may be related to functional abnormalities within networks of brain regions responsible for how we make decisions. The abnormalities may result in strengthened networks related to appetitive drive—or the need to fulfill desires—and...

Drugs of abuse induce plastic changes in the brain that seem to underlie addictive phenomena. These plastic changes can be structural (morphological) or synaptic (biochemical), and most of them take place in the mesolimbic and mesostriatal circuits. Several addiction-related changes in brain circuits (hypofrontality, sensitization, tolerance) as well as the outcome of treatment have been visual...

Chronic pain and especially neuropathic pain are a major challenge to clinical practice and basic science. Neuropathic pain syndromes are characterised by the occurrence of spontaneous ongoing and stimulus-induced pain. Stimulusinduced pain (hyperalgesia and allodynia) may result from sensitisation processes in the peripheral (primary hyperalgesia) or central (secondary hyperalgesia) nervous sy...

Neuroimaging and neuropathological studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) have identified abnormalities of brain structure in areas of the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, striatum, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and raphe nucleus. These structural imaging abnormalities persist across illness episodes, and preliminary evidence suggests they may in some cases arise...

Research in the field of neurosciences and genetics has given us great insight into the understanding of learning and behavior and changes in the brain in response to experience. It is seen that brain is dynamically changing throughout life and is capable of learning at any time. Critical periods of neuroplasticity for various streams of development are also better understood. Technological adv...

? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please...

Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in cognitive processes mediated by the circuitry of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). These deficits are associated with a range of alterations in DLPFC circuitry, some of which reflect the pathology of the illness and others of which reflect the neuroplasticity of the brain in response to the underlying disease ...