Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue, such as muscle. The corresponding surgical specialty is neurosurgery. A neurologist is a physician (not a surgeon) who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat, neurological disorders. Pediatric neurologists treat neurological disease in children. Neurologists may also be involved in clinical research, clinical trials, as well as basic research.
The following are books published by Gryphon Editions in the Classics of Neurology and Neurosurgery Library. Included in the Classics of Neurology and Neurosurgery are important works of medicine regarding the brain and nervous system. Each book in this series is bound in full genuine leather.
Engravings of The Brain and Nerves by Charles Bell - 1983
Surgery of the Head by Harvey Cushing and William W. Keen - 1983
A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System by William R. Gowers - 1983
Pyogenic Infective Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord: Meningitis, Abscess of Brain, Infective Sinus Thrombosis by William Macewen - 1983
Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences by S. Weir Mitchell - 1983
A Manual of the Nervous Diseases of Man by Moritz Heinrich Romberg - 1983
The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves by Thomas Willis and William Feindel - 1983
A Treatise on Nervous Diseases by John Cooke - 1984
Degeneration and Regeneration of the Nervous System by Santiago Ramon Cajal and Raoul Michel May - 1984
Diagnosis and Treatment of Surgical Diseases of the Spinal Cord and its Membranes by Charles A. Elsberg - 1984
The Functions of the Brain by David Ferrier - 1984
A Treatise on Diseases of the Nervous System by William Alexander Hammond - 1984
The Morbid Anatomy of the Human Brain by Robert Hooper - 1984
The Works of Robert Whytt - 1984
The Diseases of the Spinal Cord by Byrom Bramwell - 1985
Lectures on the Diseases of the Nervous System: Delivered at La Salpetriere by Jean Martin Charcot - 1985
The Structure and Functions of the Brain and Spinal Cord by Victor Horsley - 1985
Selected writings of John Hughlings Jackson (2 volumes - On epilepsy and epileptiform convulsions / Evolution and dissolution of the nervous system,speech, various papers addresses and lectures) - 1985
Anatomical and Physiological Commentaries by Herbert Mayo - 1985
Cases of Apoplexy and Lethargy, with Observations upon the Comatose Diseases by John Cheyne - 1986
Epilepsy and Other Chronic Convulsive Diseases / The Border-Land of Epilepsy by William R. Gowers - 1986
On Megrim and Sick-Headache, and Some Allied Disorders: A Contribution to the Pathology of Nerve-Storms by Edward Liveing - 1986
The Cerebral Palsies of Children / On Chorea and Choreiform Affections by William Osler - 1986
An Essay on The Shaking Palsy by James Parkinson - 1986
The Integrative Action of The Nervous System by Charles Scott Sherrington - 1986
Idea of a New Anatomy of The Brain by Charles Bell - 1987
Aphasia and Kindred Disorders of Speech by Henry Head - 1987
Neurological Fragments by John Hughlings Jackson - 1987
The Morbid Anatomy of the Brain in Mania and Hydrophobia by Andrew Marshal - 1987
Descriptive and Physiological Anatomy of the Brain, Spinal Cord and Ganglions, and of Their Coverings / Clinical Lectures on Paralysis, Disease of the Brain, and other affections of the Nervous System by Robert Bentley Todd - 1987
The Nervous System of the Human Body by Charles Bell - 1988
Intracranial Tumours by Byrom Bramwell - 1988
The Pituitary Body and its Disorders by Harvey Cushing - 1988
Tumors of the Spinal Cord and the Symptoms of Irritation and Compression of the Spinal Cord and Nerve Roots by Charles A. Elsberg - 1988
Cerebral Angiography by P. Almeida Lima - 1988
Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System Delivered at Guy's Hospital by Samuel Wilks - 1988
Some Points in the Surgery of the Brain and Its Membranes by Charles A. Ballance - 1989
The Cerebral Convolutions of Man Represented According to Original Observations, Especially upon their Development in the Foetus intended for the Use of Physicians by Alexander Ecker - 1989
Observations on the Nature and Consequences of those Injuries to Which the Head is Liable from External Violence by Percivall Pott - 1989
The Anatomy of the Brain with a General View of the Nervous system by Johann Gaspar Spurzheim - 1989
A Study of Some Points in the Pathology of Cerebral Haemorrhage by Charles Jacques Bouchard - 1990
Tumors of the Nervus Acusticus and the Syndrome of the Cerebellopontile Angle by Harvey Cushing - 1990
The Conduction of the Nervous Impulse / The Autonomic Nervous System by Keith Lucas and J. N. Langley 1990
A Treatise on Apoplexy, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Cerebral Embolism, Cerebral Gout, Cerebral Rheumatism, and Epidemic Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis by John A. Lidell - 1990
Lectures on Diseases of the Spinal Cord by Pierre Marie - 1990
Tics and Their Treatment by Henry Meige and E. Feindel - 1990
Speech and Brain Mechanisms by Wilder Penfield - 1990
Linear Crantotmy / The Field and Limitation of the Operative Surgery of the Human Brain by W. W. Keen and John Bingham Roberts - 1990
A Treatise on the Chemical Constitution of the Brain by J. L. W. Thudichum - 1990
Spinal Concussion: Surgically Considered as a Cause of Spinal Injury by Shobal Vail Clevenger - 1991
Benign Tumors in the Third Ventricle of the Brain: Diagnosis and Treatment by Walter Edward Dandy - 1991
Harvey Cushing: A Biography by John Fulton - 1991
Plates of the Cerebro-Spinal Nerves with References: for the Use of Medical Students by Paul Beck Goddard - 1991
Commentary on Apoplectic and Paralytic Affections and on Diseases Connected with the Subject by Thomas Kirkland - 1991
The Nervous System and its Diseases by Charles Karsner Mills - 1991
Traumatic Injuries of the Brain and its Membranes with a Special Study of Pistol-Shot Wounds of the Head in their Medico-Legal and Surgical Relations by Charles Phelps - 1991
Brain Surgery by M. Allen Starr - 1991
The Treatmentof Epilepsy by William Alexander - 1992
A Treatise on Localized Electrization by Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne de Boulogne - 1992
The English Malady: or A Treatise of Nervous Diseases of All Kinds by George Cheyne - 1992
The Nervous System and Its Functions by Herbert Mayo - 1992
Practical Observations on the Convulsions of Infants by John North - 1992
Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes: Twenty-five Years of Objective Study of the Higher Nervous Activity of Animals by Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov - 1992
A Dissertation on the Sensible and Irritable Parts of Animals by Albrecht von Heller - 1992
Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the Brain and the Spinal Cord by John Abercrombie - 1993
A Treatise on the Nervous Sciatica or Nervous Hip Gout by Domenico Cotugno - 1993
Lectures on the Nervous System and its Diseases by Marshall Hall - 1993
A Treatise on a Malignant Epidemic, Commonly called Spotted Fever by Elisha North - 1993
A Treatise on Diseases of The Nervous System by J. C. Prichard - 1993
The London Practice of Physick by Thomas Willis - 1993
On Disorders of the Cerebral Circulation by George Burrows - 1994
Experiments on the Principle of Life by M. Le Gallois - 1994
On the Nature and Treatment of the Deformities of the Human Frame by W. J. Little - 1994
Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous System by Alexander Monro - 1994
The Brain by Emanuel Swedenborg - 2 volumes - 1994
Surgical Treatment of Diseases of the Brain by Ernst von Bergmann - 1994
Neurology by S.A. Kinnier Wilson - 3 volumes - 1994
An Inquiry Concerning the Diseases and Function of the Brain, The Spinal Cord, and The Nerves by Amariah Brigham - 1995
Observations on Surgical Diseases and Function of the Brian, The Spinal Cord, and the Nerves by Amariah Brigham - 1995
A Physico-Medical Essay Concerning the Late Frequency of Apoplexies by William Cole - 1995
A Report on the Cerebral Affections of Infancy by Dr. Edward Copeman - 1995
Essays on Acromegaly by Pierre Marie and J. D. De Souza-Leite - 1995
The Brain and Its Physiology by Daniel Noble - 1995
Observations on Surgical Diseases of the Head and Neck by Drewry Ottley - 1995
Lectures on the Central Nervous System by Charles Edward Brown Sequard - 1995
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Neurological disorders are disorders that can affect the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), the peripheral nervous system, or the autonomic nervous system.
Major conditions include:
behavioral/cognitive syndromes
headache disorders such as migraine, cluster headache and tension headache
epilepsy
traumatic brain injury
neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).
cerebrovascular disease, such as transient ischemic attack and stroke.
sleep disorders
cerebral palsy
infections of the brain (encephalitis), brain meninges (meningitis), spinal cord (myelitis)
infections of the peripheral nervous system
neoplasms – tumors of the brain and its meninges (brain tumors), spinal cord tumors, tumors of the peripheral nerves (neuroma)
movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, hemiballismus, tic disorder, and Gilles de la Tourette syndrome
demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis, and of the peripheral nervous system, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)
spinal cord disorders – tumors, infections, trauma, malformations (e.g., myelocele, meningomyelocele, tethered cord)
disorders of peripheral nerves, muscle (myopathy) and neuromuscular junctions
exciting injuries to the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves
altered mental higher status, encephalopathy, stupor and coma
speech and language disorders
functional symptoms, having no apparent physiological cause
paraneoplastic neurological syndromes
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery is the surgical discipline focused on treating those central, peripheral nervous system and spinal column diseases amenable to surgical intervention.
Modern neurosurgery has benefited greatly from advances in computer assisted imaging (computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetoencephalography (MEG)) and the development of stereotactic surgery. Some neurosurgical procedures even involve the use of MRI and functional MRI intraoperatively. As one of the most research-oriented specialties of medicine, the scope of neurosurgery has expanded as new diagnostic techniques allow surgeons to perform more complicated surgeries. Some of the most recent and innovative advances have been radiosurgery using the gamma knife for tumor treatment and endovascular surgery for the clipping of aneurysms.
There are many risks to neurosurgery. Any operation dealing with the brain or spinal cord can cause paralysis (systemic), brain damage, infection, psychosis, or even death.
Neurosurgical methods
Neuroradiology methods are used in modern neurosurgical diagnosis and treatment, including computer assisted imaging computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and the stereotactic surgery. Some neurosurgical procedures involve the use of MRI and functional MRI intraoperatively.
Microsurgery is utilized in many aspects of neurological surgery. Microvascular anastomosis are required when EC-IC surgery is performed. The clipping of aneurysms is performed using a microscope. Minimally invasive spine surgery utilizes these techniques. Procedures such as microdiscectomy, laminectomy, and artificial discs rely on microsurgery.
Minimally invasive endoscopic surgery is utilized by neurosurgeons. Techniques such as endoscopic endonasal surgery is used for pituitary tumors, craniopharyngiomas, chordomas, and the repair of cerebrospinal fluid leaks. Ventricular endoscopy is used for colloid cysts and neurocysticercosis. Endoscopic techniques can be used to assist in the evaculation of hematomas and trigeminal neuralgia. Repair of craniofacial disorders and disturbance of cerebrospinal fluid circulation is done by neurosurgeons, and depending on the situation, plastic surgeons. Conditions such as chiari malformation, craniosynostosis, and syringomyelia are treated. This is called cranioplasty.
Neurosurgeons are involved in Stereotactic Radiosurgery along with Radiation Oncologists for tumor and AVM treatment. Radiosurgical methods such as Gamma knife, Cyberknife and Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery are used.
Neurosurgeons have begun to utilize endovascular image guided procedures for the treatment of aneurysms, AVMs, carotid stenosis, strokes, and spinal malformations, and vasospasms. Also, nonvascular procedures such as Vertoplasty and Kyphoplasty are used by neurosurgeons. Techniques such as angioplasty, stenting, clot retrieval, embolization, and diagnostic angiography are utilized.
Neuroscience
Neuroscience
is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system. Such
studies span the structure, function, evolutionary history, development,
genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, informatics,
computational neuroscience and pathology of the nervous system.
Traditionally it is seen as a branch of biological sciences. However,
recently there has been a surge in the convergence of interest from many
allied disciplines, including cognitive and neuro-psychology, computer
science, statistics, physics, philosophy, and medicine.
The scope
of neuroscience has now broadened to include any systematic scientific
experimental and theoretical investigation of the central and peripheral
nervous system of biological organisms. The empirical methodologies
employed by neuroscientists have been enormously expanded, from
biochemical and genetic analysis of dynamics of individual nerve cells
and their molecular constituents to imaging representations of
perceptual and motor tasks in the brain. Many recent theoretical
advances in neuroscience have been aided by the use of computational
modeling.
The scientific study of the nervous systems underwent a significant increase in the second half of the twentieth century, principally due to revolutions in molecular biology, electrophysiology and computational neuroscience. It has become possible to understand, in much detail, the complex processes occurring within a single neuron. However, how networks of neurons produce intellectual behavior, cognition, emotion and physiological responses is still poorly understood.
The nervous system is composed of a network of neurons and other supportive cells (such as glial cells). Neurons form functional circuits, each responsible for specific tasks to the behaviors at the organism level. Thus, neuroscience can be studied at many different levels, ranging from molecular level to cellular level to systems level to cognitive level.
At the molecular level, the basic questions addressed in molecular neuroscience include the mechanisms by which neurons express and respond to molecular signals and how axons form complex connectivity patterns. At this level, tools from molecular biology and genetics are used to understand how neurons develop and die, and how genetic changes affect biological functions. The morphology, molecular identity and physiological characteristics of neurons and how they relate to different types of behavior are also of considerable interest. (The ways in which neurons and their connections are modified by experience are addressed at the physiological and cognitive levels.)
At the cellular level, the fundamental questions addressed in cellular neuroscience are the mechanisms of how neurons process signals physiologically and electrochemically. They address how signals are processed by the dendrites, somas and axons, and how neurotransmitters and electrical signals are used to process signals in a neuron.
At the systems level, the questions addressed in systems neuroscience include how the circuits are formed and used anatomically and physiologically to produce the physiological functions, such as reflexes, sensory integration, motor coordination, circadian rhythms, emotional responses, learning and memory, et cetera. In other words, they address how these neural circuits function and the mechanisms through which behaviors are generated. For example, systems level analysis addresses questions concerning specific sensory and motor modalities: how does vision work? How do songbirds learn new songs and bats localize with ultrasound? The related field of neuroethology, in particular, addresses the complex question of how neural substrates underlies specific animal behavior.
At the cognitive level, cognitive neuroscience addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the neural circuitry. The emergence of powerful new measurement techniques such as neuroimaging (e.g.,fMRI, PET, SPECT), electrophysiology and human genetic analysis combined with sophisticated experimental techniques from cognitive psychology allows neuroscientists and psychologists to address abstract questions such as how human cognition and emotion are mapped to specific neural circuitries.
Neuroscience is also beginning to become allied with social sciences, and burgeoning interdisciplinary fields of neuroeconomics, decision theory, social neuroscience are starting to address some of the most complex questions involving interactions of brain with environment.
Neuroscience generally includes all scientific studies involving the nervous system. Psychology, as the scientific study of mental processes, may be considered a sub-field of neuroscience, although some mind/body theorists argue that the definition goes the other way — that psychology is a study of mental processes that can be modeled by many other abstract principles and theories, such as behaviorism and traditional cognitive psychology, that are independent of the underlying neural processes. The term neurobiology is sometimes used interchangeably with neuroscience, though the former refers to the biology of nervous system, whereas the latter refers to science of mental functions that form the foundation of the constituent neural circuitries. In Principles of Neural Science, nobel laureate Eric Kandel contends that cognitive psychology is one of the pillar disciplines for understanding the brain in neuroscience.
Neurology and Psychiatry are medical specialties that specifically address the diseases of the nervous system. These terms also refer to clinical disciplines involving diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. Neurology deals with diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and stroke, while psychiatry focuses on mental illnesses. The boundaries between the two have been blurring recently and physicians who specialize in either generally receive training in both. Both neurology and psychiatry are heavily influenced by basic research in neuroscience.
History
Evidence of trepanation, the surgical practice of either drilling or scraping a hole into the skull with the aim of curing headaches or mental disorders or relieving cranial pressure, being performed on patients dates back to Neolithic times and has been found in various cultures throughout the world. Manuscripts dating back to 5000BC indicated that the Egyptians had some knowledge about symptoms of brain damage.
Early views on the function of the brain regarded it to be a "cranial stuffing" of sorts. In Egypt, from the late Middle Kingdom onwards, the brain was regularly removed in preparation for mummification. It was believed at the time that the heart was the seat of intelligence. According to Herodotus, during the first step of mummification: 'The most perfect practice is to extract as much of the brain as possible with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is mixed with drugs.'
The view that the heart was the source of consciousness was not challenged until the time of Hippocrates. He believed that the brain was not only involved with sensation, since most specialized organs (e.g., eyes, ears, tongue) are located in the head near the brain, but was also the seat of intelligence. Aristotle, however, believed that the heart was the center of intelligence and that the brain served to cool the blood. This view was generally accepted until the Roman physician Galen, a follower of Hippocrates and physician to Roman gladiators, observed that his patients lost their mental faculties when they had sustained damage to their brains.
In al-Andalus, Abulcasis, the father of modern surgery, developed material and technical designs which are still used in neurosurgery. Averroes suggested the existence of Parkinson's disease and attributed photoreceptor properties to the retina. Avenzoar described meningitis, intracranial thrombophlebitis, mediastinal tumours and made contributions to modern neuropharmacology. Maimonides wrote about neuropsychiatric disorders and described rabies and belladonna intoxication. Elsewhere in medieval Europe, Vesalius (1514-1564) and René Descartes (1596-1650) also made several contributions to neuroscience.
Studies of the brain became more sophisticated after the invention of the microscope and the development of a staining procedure by Camillo Golgi during the late 1890s that used a silver chromate salt to reveal the intricate structures of single neurons. His technique was used by Santiago Ramón y Cajal and led to the formation of the neuron doctrine, the hypothesis that the functional unit of the brain is the neuron. Golgi and Ramón y Cajal shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906 for their extensive observations, descriptions and categorizations of neurons throughout the brain. The hypotheses of the neuron doctrine were supported by experiments following Galvani's pioneering work in the electrical excitability of muscles and neurons. In the late 19th century, DuBois-Reymond, Müller, and von Helmholtz showed neurons were electrically excitable and that their activity predictably affected the electrical state of adjacent neurons.
In parallel with this research, work with brain-damaged patients by Paul Broca suggested that certain regions of the brain were responsible for certain functions. At the time Broca's finding were seen as a confirmation of Franz Joseph Gall's theory that language was localized and certain psychological functions were localized in the cerebral cortex. The localization of function hypothesis was supported by observations of epileptic patients conducted by John Hughlings Jackson, who correctly deduced the organization of motor cortex by watching the progression of seizures through the body. Wernicke further developed the theory of the specialization of specific brain structures in language comprehension and production. Modern research still uses the Brodmann cytoarchitectonic (referring to study of cell structure) anatomical definitions from this era in continuing to show that distinct areas of the cortex are activated in the execution of specific tasks.
Source and additional information: Neurology