Brain Plasticity and Behavior

The topic of brain plasticity and behaviour is the focus of this book. It addresses the relationship between recovery from brain damage and changes in the brain that might support the recovery, and also includes studies of humans as well as laboratory species, particularly rats.

There are few books devoted to the topic of brain plasticity and behavior. Most previous works that cover topics related to brain plasticity do not include extensive discussions of behavior. The first to try to address the relationship between recovery from brain damage and changes in the brain that might support the recovery, this volume includes studies of humans as well as laboratory species, particularly rats. The subject matter identifies a consistent correlation between specific changes in the brain and behavioral recovery, as well as various factors such as sex and experience that influence this correlation in consistent ways.

Evolving from a series of lectures given as the McEachran Lectures at the University of Alberta, this volume originally began as a summary of the lectures, but has expanded to include more background literature, allowing the reader to see the author''s biases, assumptions, and hunches in a broader perspective. In writing this volume, the author had two goals in mind:

* to initiate senior undergraduates or graduate psychology, biology, neuroscience or other interested students to the issues and questions regarding the nature of brain plasticity, and

* to provide a monograph in the form of an extended summary of the work the author and his colleagues have done on brain plasticity and recovery of function.