Dr. David F. Cechetto is a Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario. His research interests are in the role of inflammation in cerebral ischemia and vascular cognitive impairment and dementia. He has developed animal models for the investigation of the combined effects of Alzheimer's Disease and cerebral ischemia and other risk factors for vascular cognitive impairment such as diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis. He has also developed an agent with potential for the treatment of schizophrenia that targets a new unique class of receptors compared to current antipsychotic therapies. An additional area of research involves the examination of mental stress on cardiovascular reactivity (a risk factor for cardiovascular disease) and the regions of the human brain responsible for varying degrees of reactivity in individuals. He is principal investigator on numerous basic neuroscience studies with clinical implications. He has consulted for companies such as Upjohn, Servier (French), Uriach (Spanish), and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals.Dr. Nina Weishaupt trained as a veterinarian before committing her career entirely to research in the neurological sciences. Her PhD thesis work in the field of spinal cord injury at the University of Alberta earned her a Dissertation Fellowship and resulted in a number of published articles. Nina has extensive experience with animal models of neurological conditions, and is currently developing a novel rat model for studying early events in the development of Alzheimer's Disease at the University of Western Ontario.

Part I. Introductory Chapters

Chapter 1. Anatomy of the Cerebral Cortex

Chapter 2. Cortical Plasticity in Response to Injury and Disease

Chapter 3. Imaging Approaches to Cerebral Cortex Pathology

Part II. The Cerebral Cortex in Neurodegenerative Disorders

Chapter 4. Alzheimer's Disease

Chapter 5. Vascular Dementia

Chapter 6. Frontotemporal Dementia

Chapter 7. Parkinson's Disease and the Cerebral Cortex

Chapter 8. Huntington Disease

Chapter 9. Cortical Manifestations in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Chapter 10. Cortical Involvement in Multiple Sclerosis

Part III. The Cerebral Cortex in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Chapter 11. Prefrontal Cortical Abnormalities in Cognitive Deficits of Schizophrenia

Chapter 12. Role of the Prefrontal Cortex in Addictive Disorders

The Cerebral Cortex in Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Experimental Approaches to Clinical Issues focuses on how pre-clinical investigations are addressing the clinical issues surrounding the involvement of the cerebral cortex in selected conditions of the nervous system, including Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's, addiction, and cardiovascular dysregulation.

Each chapter is written by an expert in his/her field who provides a comprehensive review of the clinical manifestations of cortical involvement and experimental techniques currently available to tackle cortical issues in disease. Thus, this present title provides a link between cortical clinical problems and investigational approaches to help foster future research with high translational value.