Normal muscle contraction and force production require the efficient transmission of an electrical impulse from a motor axon to the muscle fibers it innervates. The neuromuscular junction (NMJ), a specialized synapse with a complex structural and functional organization, is the…
Acknowledgments We thank Ian Worcester for preparing the manuscript and acknowledge our friend and teacher David Robertson, whose authorship of this chapter in the fifth edition we built upon. Supported by Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment, Grant 5520298, and NIH-NIDDK…
Clinical Approach to Disorders of Peripheral Nerves Peripheral nerve disorders are common neurological problems caused by dysfunction of peripheral motor, sensory, or autonomic nerves. The causes of neuropathies are disparate and their clinical presentations highly variable. The main causes of…
Disorders of Nerve Roots The spinal nerve roots serve as the transition from the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system (CNS). Each spinal nerve is derived from anterior (ventral) and posterior (dorsal) nerve roots; the anterior roots carrying…
The bones, joints, ligaments, and meninges that support and protect the tissues of the nervous system can give rise to numerous illnesses that affect the nervous system. These disorders sometimes border on other medical disciplines unfamiliar to the neurologist and…
Olfactory Nerve (Cranial Nerve I) See Chapter 19 . Optic Nerve (Cranial Nerve II) See Chapter 16, Chapter 43 . Oculomotor Nerve (Cranial Nerve III) Anatomy Paired oculomotor nuclei are located in the dorsal midbrain ventral to the periaqueductal gray…
Pain Transmission and Modulation as Related to Headache Headache arises from activation of pain-sensitive intracranial structures. In the 1930s, Ray and Wolff identified which intracranial components were pain sensitive and mapped the pattern of pain referral based on studies in…
Since antiquity, scientists, philosophers, writers, and religious scholars from all cultures and continents have repeatedly raised two fundamental questions—(1) what is sleep? and (2) why do we sleep?—without satisfactory answers. Some 2000 years ago, Lucretius postulated that sleep is an…
Seizures and Epilepsy Definitions Seizures are transient events that include symptoms and/or signs of abnormal excessive hypersynchronous activity in the brain ( ). The traditional definition of epilepsy required the occurrence of two unprovoked seizures. It is known that the…
Neurocutaneous disorders are congenital or hereditary conditions that feature lesions of both the skin and nervous system. Although each condition, or phakomatosis , is distinct and characterized by a unique pathophysiology, the concept of neurocutaneous disorders unifies those neurological disorders,…