Connectionists: New book on structural plasticity released

[Markus Butz-Ostendorf]

Dear colleagues,

** Apologies for cross postings. **

I would like to draw your attention to our recently published book "The 
Rewiring Brain", Academic Press, June 2017.

https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-rewiring-brain/van-ooyen/978-0-12-803784-3

Kind regards
Markus Butz

** Description **
The adult brain is not as hard-wired as traditionally thought. By 
modifying their small- or large-scale morphology, neurons can make new 
synaptic connections or break existing ones (structural plasticity). 
Structural changes accompany memory formation and learning, and are 
induced by neurogenesis, neurodegeneration and brain injury such as stroke.

Exploring the role of structural plasticity in the brain can be greatly 
assisted by mathematical and computational models, as they enable us to 
bridge the gap between system-level dynamics and lower level cellular 
and molecular processes. However, most traditional neural network models 
have fixed neuronal morphologies and a static connectivity pattern, with 
plasticity merely arising from changes in the strength of existing 
synapses (synaptic plasticity). In The Rewiring Brain, the editors bring 
together for the first time contemporary modeling studies that 
investigate the implications of structural plasticity for brain function 
and pathology. Starting with an experimental background on structural 
plasticity in the adult brain, the book covers computational studies on 
homeostatic structural plasticity, the impact of structural plasticity 
on cognition and cortical connectivity, the interaction between synaptic 
and structural plasticity, neurogenesis-related structural plasticity, 
and structural plasticity in neurological disorders. View more > 
https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-rewiring-brain/van-ooyen/978-0-12-803784-3#

** Key Features **
Reviews the current state of knowledge of structural plasticity in the 
adult brain
Gives a comprehensive overview of computational studies on structural 
plasticity
Provides insights into the potential driving forces of structural 
plasticity and the functional implications of structural plasticity for 
learning and memory
Serves as inspiration for developing novel treatment strategies for 
stimulating functional repair after brain damage
Readership
Advanced graduate students and researchers in the fields of 
computational neuroscience, experimental neuroscience, neurobiology, and 
computer science

** Table of Contents **
Section 1. Experimental Background
1. Structural plasticity and cortical connectivity
2. Structural plasticity induced by adult neurogenesis
3. Structural neural plasticity during stroke recovery
4. Is lesion-induced synaptic rewiring driven by activity homeostasis?

Section 2. Homeostatic Structural Plasticity
5. Network formation through activity-dependent neurite outgrowth: a 
review of a simple model of homeostatic structural plasticity
6. Clustered arrangement of inhibitory neurons can lead to oscillatory 
dynamics in a model of activity-dependent structural plasticity
7. A detailed model of homeostatic structural plasticity based on 
dendritic spine and axonal bouton dynamics
8. Critical periods emerge from homeostatic structural plasticity in a 
full-scale model of the developing cortical column
9. Lesion-induced dendritic remodeling as a new mechanism of homeostatic 
structural plasticity in the adult brain View more > 
https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-rewiring-brain/van-ooyen/978-0-12-803784-3#

Details
No. of pages: 592
Language: English
Copyright: © Academic Press 2017

** About the Editor **

** Arjen van Ooyen **
Van Ooyen was trained as a (theoretical) biologist and received his PhD 
in computational neuroscience from the University of Amsterdam, the 
Netherlands, in 1995. After postdoctoral periods at the University of 
Edinburgh, UK, and the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research in 
Amsterdam, he started working at VU University Amsterdam in 2004, first 
as assistant professor and later as associate professor. His long-term 
interests include the computational and mathematical modeling of 
neuronal morphogenesis and the development of synaptic connectivity, 
with a focus on the role of homeostatic structural plasticity in the 
formation and reorganization of neuronal networks. He is editor of the 
book Modeling Neural Development (MIT Press, 2003) and author of the 
review paper Using theoretical models to analyse neural development 
(Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2011).

Affiliations and Expertise
Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Center for Neurogenomics and 
Cognitive Research (CNCR), VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

** Markus Butz-Ostendorf **
Markus Butz-Ostendorf, Ph.D.

Markus Butz-Ostendorf studied informatics and biology and holds a PhD in 
neuroanatomy. He did several postdocs at e.g. at the Bernstein Center 
for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen, the Neuroscience Campus VU 
Universiteit Amsterdam and the Forschungszentrum Jülich. His research 
focus is on modeling structural plasticity in the healthy and diseased 
brain. Together with Arjen van Ooyen, he phrased a computational theory 
on the driving forces for homeostatic structural plasticity following 
brain lesions. The underlying algorithms are freely available in the 
modeling framework for large-scale spiking neuronal networks NEST. He 
recently edited Frontiers Research Topic "Anatomy and plasticity in 
large-scale neuronal networks."

Affiliations and Expertise
Biomax Informatics AG, Planegg, Germany

-- 
Dr. rer. nat. Markus Butz-Ostendorf
Product Manager
Biomax Informatics AG
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