Frontal-Subcortical Circuits in Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders

Reviews / Votes

This elegant text addresses what is perhaps the most important conceptual development in late 20th-century neuropsychiatry. There is now common agreement that brain-behavior relationships are predictably tied to the organization of discrete yet interconnected neural circuits that link the frontal and limbic cortices with the basal ganglia. This volume explores the role of these 'loops' in the primary manifestations of specific lesion-based neurologic syndromes and then, by extension, in the expression of virtually every major class of neuropsychiatric disorder. Specific dysfunction of intricate neurochemical and synaptic subterritories within the frontal-subcortical circuits must account for conditions as categorically distinct as depression, schizophrenia, OCD, substance abuse, ADHD, mania, and Tourette syndrome. Extrapolating from the signature syndromes of frontal-subcortical circuit dysfunction to the complexities of such neuropsychiatric states will require a much finer parsing of these circuits. This text can serve as a valuable primer for this process--a road map to the circuit 'interstates' as we move ahead to explore the neuronal side streets of the psyche. --Neal R. Swerdlow, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego

The arrival of this landmark volume could not be more timely. There is no other text available that devotes itself completely to the topic. Contributors cogently argue that a spectrum of neurological and psychiatric disorders should be placed within the context of a systems-level dysfunction. Lichter and Cummings have done a wonderful job of recruiting the leading proponents of the systems approach, and have masterfully integrated the chapters to reduce redundancy and enhance the integration of topics. This book is recommended for researchers in neuropsychiatry, behavioral neurology, and cognitive neuroscience, as well as practitioners in the clinical neurosciences who are yearning for a focused and intelligent alternative to simple localizationist views of behavior.--Jordan Grafman, PhD, Chief, Cognitive Neuroscience Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
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