Waking and the Reticular Activating System in Health and Disease

Waking and the Reticular Activating System in Health and Disease provides a comprehensive overview on the ?activating” properties of the RAS. In health, the RAS provides the basis against which we assess the external world, and in disease it distorts that world and shatters our self-image. This book describes the physiology of each process, how it is disturbed in each disorder, and what the most appropriate treatment should be.

Dr. Garcia-Rill, along with contributions from leading specialists, discusses the understanding of the RAS as a system not only modulating waking, but also in charge of survival mechanisms such as fight vs flight responses and reflexes. The full spectrum of these functions helps explain the complexity of symptoms evident in such disorders as disparate as schizophrenia and Parkinson?s disease. The book reviews the mechanisms that control waking and arousal, and especially how those mechanisms malfunction in certain neurological and psychiatric disorders.

1. Governing Principles of Brain Activity 2. The EEG and the Discovery of the RAS 3. Other Regions Modulating Waking 4. Wiring Diagram of the RAS 5. Development and the RAS 6. Ascending Projections of the RAS 7. Descending Projections of the RAS 8. The 10 Hz Fulcrum 9. Gamma Band Activity 10. Preconscious Awareness 11. Psychiatric Disorders and the RAS 12. Neurological Disorders and the RAS 13. The RAS and Drug Abuse 14. The Science of Waking and Public Policy

• First comprehensive overview on the RAS and its role in schizophrenia, major depression, autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other neurologic and mental diseases
• Offers a new way of thinking about brain function and the role of the RAS in our waking lives
• Written by a leading translational neuroscience researcher with contributions by specialists in the field