They have also resulted in an increased understanding of the perception and production of language, and declarative memory functions related to language. Interesting areas that can be studied using such techniques are also those aimed at understanding how the human amygdala and hippocampus process fear and emotional stimuli. Interaction with researchers of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical other disciplines, such as economy and social sciences, may permit the investigation of human problem-solving mechanisms employing realistic paradigms. A further interesting avenue is to conduct pharmacological in-vivo studies, in which pharmacological manipulations are performed in healthy subjects

and epilepsy patients (ie, N-methyl-D-aspartate Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical [NMDA] receptor antagonists), both during invasive depth electrode recordings and fMRI experiments.34 These approaches have proven important to dissect out the contribution of specific neurotransmitter systems to cognitive functions. They also potentially provide

an endophenotype that may predict drug efficacy or side effects. Apart from functional selleck catalog imaging techniques, modem imaging technologies provide an unprecendented look at structural changes in the human brain associated with epilepsy. It has become Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical increasingly clear that both functional (ie, an hyperexcitablc focus) or structural lesions can lead to shifts in the local representation of function in the brain, and to substantial changes in functional and structural connectivity

between brain areas. Using modern structural Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and functional MRI techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging or dynamic causal modeling, allows analysis of such changes in human subjects with excellent spatial resolution, with respect to the functions described above. Such experiments will reveal the properties and time course of structural and functional disease associated plasticity, as well as which aspects of this plasticity can be influenced (ie, by Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical seizure suppression or epilepsy surgery). Relationship of epilepsy to other neurological disorders It is becoming increasingly clear that key Batimastat molecules and mechanisms responsible for the development of epilepsy may also be pivotal in other neurological disorders. For instance, evidence from animal studies suggests that mechanisms of neuronal degeneration may be very similar in models of epilepsy, trauma, ischemia, and perhaps other chronic neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, the conversion of glial cells to a reactive phenotype occurs not only in epilepsy, but also in a wide range of neurological disorders. There are numerous other examples for stereotypical, disease-associated plastic changes in neurons in different neurological disorders.