The study of brain lesions and their impact on cognition and behavior has been the dominant tool used to examine the complex function of the brain for the last three centuries. By testing neuropsychological deficits that correlate with a lesion in a particular part of the brain, it is possible to hypothesise about the role and cognitive function of that individual brain area. Over the past several decades, the rapid development and implementation of many new technologies tovisualize brain activity has greatly augmented our understanding of brain function. However, even now there are many experimental questions that are difficult, if not impossible to answer in any way other than lesion techniques. Such studies though are not without their own challenges to overcome such aslesion-induced neuroplasticity, widespread degenerative changes, and the permanent nature of a lesion. Recent developments in different fields of neuroscience have provided tools to overcome many of the problems related to conventional lesion techniques and have succeeded to synthesizing these new approaches with a variety of new techniques to visualize brain activity on the level of individual neurons as well as on the level of cognitive performance. These virtual lesions involve the temporary deactivation of a part of the brain, by means of a range of techniques that have been recently developed. Because these deactivations are reversible, and leave the neuronal substrate unaffected, they provide a much more controllable, and rigorous way of testing subjects. These virtual lesion approaches provide an essential bridge across the gap between basic research and computational approaches and provide mechanisms to test the applicabilityof models and their annexant hypotheses. Virtual Lesions provides a state of the art guide to the full range of reversible deactivation techniques available. With each chapter written by experts in their respective field, and providing evidence of the practical applications of their methods, alongwith potential pitfalls, the book will serve as a valuable and practical guide for future experimentation within cognitive neuroscience.
Exploring Neural Circuits; Intracortical Mechanisms Underlying Orientation and Direction Selectivity Studied with the GABA-Inactivation Technique; Contributions of Ascending Thalamic and Local Intracortical Connections to Visual Cortical Function; In Search of the Role of Extrageniculate Cortico-thalamic Loops in Visual Processing Using Reversible Deactivation Techniques; Cortical Modulation of Auditory Processing in the Thalamus; Reversible Deactivation of Feedforward and Feedback Pathways in the Visual Cortex of the Monkey; Examining the Basis of Neural Plasticity Using Chronic Pharmacological Applications; Investigating Behaviour in Animals; The Use of Cooling Deactivation to Reveal the Neural Basis of Lesion-Induced Plasticity in the Developing and Mature Cerebral Cortex; Dissecting the Organization of Cortical and Subcortical Circuits for Skilled Limb Movement Control in Development and Maturity with Reversible Deactivation; Cerebral Control of Eye Movements; Reversible Impairment of an Auditory-Visual Association Task During Cooling of Prefrontal Cortex; Probing the Human Brain; Case Studies in Virtual Neuropsychology:: Reversible Deactivation and Magnetic Brain Stimulation; Metamodal Cortical Processing in the Occipital Cortex of Blind and Signed Subjects; Excitability of Human Visual Cortex Examined with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; Negative Phenomena Induced by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Human Primary Motor Cortex;
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