Erschienen in:
09.03.2019 | Editorial
Where is the brain in all of this?
verfasst von:
Vaughan G. Macefield
Erschienen in:
Clinical Autonomic Research
|
Ausgabe 6/2019
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Excerpt
Much of what we have learnt about the organization of the central autonomic network has come from reductionist studies in anaesthetized and reduced animal preparations, with very few in conscious animals. The advent of brain imaging, first with positron emission tomography, but for the last two decades with functional magnetic resonance imaging, has given us unprecedented insight into the operation of the central autonomic network in conscious humans. There is also increasing recognition that, while many diseases featuring autonomic disturbances originate in the peripheral tissues -such as the heart, blood vessels, lungs or kidneys- it is the brain that is ultimately responsible for generating the autonomic responses that aim to maintain the internal environment of the body constant. Of course, these homeostatic adjustments can end up being deleterious, such as the end-organ damage associated with hypertension. …
