Pharmacological Modifications of Evoked Brain Potentials [antikvár]

PREFACE While investigating the effect of various pharmacological agents on evoked responses, I realized how cumbersome it was to collect the relevant literature. References on drug effects on evoked responses are scattered throughout a wide variety of journals and symposium volumes, some of which date back more than three decades. Moreover, new publications in this field appear at a rapid rate. It seemed, therefore, worthwile to make a comprehensive search of literature and to classify the evoked response data according to pharmacological criteria. The result is the present book which constitutes in large part an annotated bibliography rather than a review. Chapter 1 deals with general and methodological aspects that are of importance in pharmacological studies. Numerous references to review and summary articles should permit the interested reader to find more detailed information. Special emphasis is given to the effects of circulatory and respiratory variables and body temperature on evoked responses, since they may account for "unspecific" pharmacological changes. The various types of experimental preparations and the necessary precautions for pharmacological studies are briefly described. Some problems of stimulation and recording, species differences, data analysis and drug administration, which are relevant for drug studies, are discussed in separate sections. Finally, the check list given in the Appendix should help the researcher who is not familiar in the area, to make sure that he did not omit relevant methodological aspects in the design or description of his experiments. Chapters 2 to 5 cover the various drugs and drug classes. They should provide a quick guide to the relevant literature and also indicate the extent of agreement between the various results. Usually, recordings from cortical and subcortical regions are treated in separate subsections. If not stated otherwise, sensory cortical evoked responses were recorded from the specific sensory area. In the majority of studies the cat has been used as the experimental subject. The use of other species is generally indicated in the text. Human studies are mentioned throughout the book, although, due to the author's interest, animal studies are covered in more detail. For more detailed information on methodological or pharmacological problems in human experiments the reader is referred to the references given in the text.