The Hidden Life of the Basal Ganglia: At the Base of Brain and Mind

by Hagai Bergman

Overview

The anatomy and physiology of the basal ganglia and their relation to brain and behavior, disorders and therapies, and philosophy of mind and moral values.

The main task of the basal ganglia—a group of subcortical nuclei, located at the base of the brain—is to optimize and execute our automatic behavior. In this book, Hagai Bergman analyzes the anatomy and physiology of the basal ganglia, discussing their relation to brain and behavior, to disorders and therapies, and even to moral values. Drawing on his forty years of studying the basal ganglia, Bergman presents new information on physiology and computational models, Parkinson’s disease and other ganglia-related disorders, and such therapies as deep brain stimulation.
Focusing on studies of nonhuman primates and human basal ganglia and relying on system physiology and in vivo extra-cellular recording techniques, Bergman first describes the major brain structures that constitute the basal ganglia, the morphology of their cellular elements, their synaptic connectivity and their physiological function in health and disease. He discusses the computational physiology of the healthy basal ganglia, describing four generations of computational models, and then traces the computational physiology of basal ganglia–related disorders and their treatments, including Parkinson’s disease and its pharmacological and surgical therapies. Finally, Bergman considers the implications of these findings for such moral concerns as free will. Explaining this leap into domains rarely explored in neuroscientific accounts, Bergman writes that the longer he studies the basal ganglia, the more he is convinced that they are truly the base of both brain and mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262543118
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Hagai Bergman is Simone and Bernard Guttman Chair in Brain Research and Professor of Physiology in the Edmond and Lily Safra Center (ELSC) for Brain Research and Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
I Introduction and Background 
1 The Basal Ganglia: Why and Where? 3
2 Cellular Anatomy and Biochemistry of the Basal Ganglia 15
3 The Synaptic Connections of the Basal Ganglia Network 27
4 Computational Modeling of Brain and Behavior 39
5 Principles of Neurophysiological Data Acquisition 43
6 Principles of Neurophysiological Analysis 61
II Computational Physiology of the Healthy Basal Ganglia
7 Physiology of the Basal Ganglia 77
8 Basal Ganglia Physiology: The Roads Less Traveled 89
9 Box-and-Arrow Rate Models of the Basal Ganglia 105
10 Reinforcement-Learning Actor/Critic Models of the Basal Ganglia 117
11 Multiple-Critics, Multiobjective Optimization Models of the Basal Ganglia 133
12 The Basal Ganglia as one of many State-to-Action Loops 145
III Computational Physiology of Basal Ganglia Disorders and their Therapy
13 Parkinson's Disease and other Basal Ganglia-Related Human Disorders 163
14 Animal Models of Parkinson's Disease 171
15 Physiology of Parkinson's Disease: Animal Models 179
16 Physiology of Parkinson's Disease: Human 195
17 Pharmacotherapy of Parkinson's Disease 203
18 Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy for Parkinson's Disease 215
19 Closing the Loop on Parkinson's Disease and Basal Ganglia-Related Disorders 225
IV From the Basal Ganglia and Brain to the Mind 
20 The Basal Ganglia, Free Will, and Human Responsibility 241
Notes 247
References 261
Index 295

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Hagai Bergman has written a splendid, very human, and witty text; this epic odyssey into the cradle of our motions and emotions is a tour de force of translational neuroscience.”
—Marwan Hariz, Emeritus Professor, University College London, and Adjunct Professor, Umeå, Sweden
 
“This book provides a masterful summary of how these crucial sets of brain nuclei are organized functionally and affect our behavior, written by an international expert with both clinical and academic experience in working on these amazing deep brain structures.”
—Ann M. Graybiel, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT
 
“Excellent, insightful, and lively. In his unique, passionate style, Hagai Bergman takes the reader on a journey through his lifelong quest for understanding the fundamental role of the basal ganglia within the brain orchestra. A must-read for neuroscientists interested in the mechanisms of human behavior.”
—Paul Krack, Head of the Center of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, Neurology Department, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland