There is increasing evidence that the altered brain function in diseases as Schizophrenia, AD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is characterized by the conversion from small-world network architecture to less optimal functional topologies [17], [18], [33], [34], [35], [36].
Although neuronal cell death in acute and chronic neurodegenerative diseases is clearly an important factor in decline of cognitive or motor function, loss of dendritic spines, in the absence of cell death, may also contribute to impaired brain function in these diseases, as well as in psychiatric disorders and aging.
New developments in neuroimaging, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography, have revolutionized our understanding of abnormal brain function in many disease states, including schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Identifying and understanding these changes in dendrite morphology are essential for understanding brain function in normal and disease states.
The kynurenine pathway (KP) of tryptophan degradation contains several neuroactive metabolites that may influence brain function in health and disease.
I argue that a judicious combination of new and old approaches is the best way to advance our understanding of higher brain function in health and disease.
"As our knowledge of brain function explodes, there remains a major need to translate these findings into a meaningful understanding of human brain function in health and disease".
Thus, understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating GABAergic synaptic transmission, which remain unclear compared to excitatory synapses, is crucial for understanding basic brain function in health and disease.
Better understanding of the biological pathways by which systemic inflammation influences brain function in health and disease may lead to novel or improve therapeutic strategies.
However, mathematical and computational models can be used as support tools to characterize the electromechanical features of the brain across multiple scales of observation to gain a global insight into brain function in health and disease.
Neuroengineering comprises fundamental, experimental, computational, theoretical, and/or quantitative research aimed at furthering our ability to understand and augment brain function in both health and disease across many orders of magnitude of spatiotemporal scales.
