The Biological Basis for Mind Body Interactions

The current volume focuses on several key aspects of mind/brain/body interactions in health and disease, including specific examples of interactions between body and brain, mechanisms underlying the response of the system to stressors, the role of early life events in permanently biasing the responsiveness of the system and practical implications of mind body interactions in human disease.
The volume on Biological Basis for Mind Body Interactions is organized into 6 major sections, each dealing with a unique aspect of the general topic: After establishing the relationship between mind, brain and emotions, the first section deals with general neurobiological aspects mediating the effect of stress on various organ systems, including the immune and cardiovascular system. The second section covers the topic of how early life stressor can permanently alter responsiveness of the nervous system in animals and in man. The third section deals with influences of the internal environment, mediated by neuroendocrine and visceral afferent pathways on the CNS. The fourth section which deals with influences of body on the brain, focuses on mechanisms involved in perception and modulation of pain. The fifth section deals with influences of the mind/brain on the body, with an emphasis on central and peripheral mechanisms of autonomic control of body functions. The last section deals with a series of practical issues of mind body treatments, including acupuncture, breathing, body work and meditation. In addition, issues such as cost effectiveness and research aspects are discussed. Authors in this last section frequently refer to topics and mechanisms addressed in the early sections, making it a truly integrated volume.The unique aspect of the volume is the integration of state of the art research information on biological and practical aspects of mind/brain/body interactions. It is based on the beliefs of the editors and participants that the traditional separation of mind and body in research and in treatment of human disease is obsolete and needs to be replaced with a new unifying paradigm. Ironically, this evolving paradigm shares many similarities with ancient pre-Cartesian paradigms of health and disease.

Contenu

List of Contributors. Preface. Acknowledgements. Section I. Introduction 1. Minding the mind (E.A. Mayer, C.B. Saper). Section II. Relationship between mind, brain and emotions. 2. Topography and relationships of mind and brain (B.A. Vogt, O. Devinsky). Section III. The neurobiology of the stress response. 3. Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: central role of the brain (B.S. McEwen). 4. Interactions between the immune and neuroendocrine systems (E.M. Sternberg). 5. Depression really does hurt your heart: stress, depression and cardiovascular disease (D.L. Musselman, C.B. Nemeroff). 6. Circuits and mechanisms governing hypothalamic responses to stress: a tale of two paradigms (P.E. Sawchenko, H.-Y. Li, A. Ericsson). Section IV. Early life experiences and the developing brain. 7. Long-term behavioral and neuroendocrine adaptations to adverse early experience (C.O. Ladd, R.L. Huot, K.V. Thrivikraman, C.B. Nemeroff, M.J. Meaney, P.M. Plotsky). 8. Neurobiological correlates of defensive behaviors (V.P. Bakshi, S.E. Shelton, N.H. Kalin). 9. Effects of perinatal pain and stress (K.J.S. Anand). 10. Early life abuses in the past history of patients with gastrointestinal tract and pelvic floor dysfunctions (G. Devroede). Section V. Influences of the internal environment on the brain. 11. Responses of afferent neurons to the contents of the digestive tract, and their relation to endocrine and immune responses (J.P. Furness, N. Clerc). 12. The controls of eating: brain meanings of food stimuli (G.P. Smith). 13. Effects of nutrients on brain function (T.J. Maher). 14. The evolving neurobiology of gut feelings (E.A. Mayer, B. Naliboff, J. Munakata). Section VI. Influences of the body on the brain. 15. Integration of viscerosomatic sensory input at the spinal level (R.D. Foreman). 16. The medial pain system, cingulate cortex, and parallel processing of nociceptive information (B.A. Vogt, R.W. Sikes). 17. Pain as a visceral sensation (C.B. Saper). 18. Pain modulation: expectation, opioid analgesia and virtual pain (H.L. Fields). 19. Mechanisms of analgesia produced by hypnosis and placebo suggestions (D.D. Price, J.J. Barell). 20. The role of vagal visceral afferents in the control of nociception (W. Jänig, S.G Khasar, J.D. Levine, F.J.-P. Miao). Section VII. The influence of brain and mind on the body. 21. Affect, cognition, the immune system and health (M.E. Kemeny, T.L. Gruenewald). 22. Memory networks in the prefrontal cortex (J.M. Fuster). 23. Nonconscious brain processing indexed by psychophysiological measures (D. Tranel). 24. Brain mediation of active and passive emotional coping (R. Bandler, J.L. Price, K.A. Keay). 25. Specificity in the organization of the autonomic nervous system: a basis for precise neural regulation of homeostatic and protective body functions (W. Jänig, H.-J. Häbler). 26. The impact of emotions on the heart (R.L. Verrier, M.A. Mittleman). 27. Neural influence on immune responses: underlying suppositions and basic principles of neural-immune signaling (D.L. Felten). Section VIII. Practical use of mind - body interactions in medicine. 28. The cost-effectiveness of mind/body medicine interventions (D.S. Sobel). 29. Towards an integrative model of irritable bowel syndrome (B.D. Naliboff, L. Chang, J. Munakata, E.A. Mayer). 30. Bridging the gap between mind and body: do cultural and psychoanalytic concepts of visceral disease have an explanation in contemporary neuroscience? (N.W. Read). 31. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): epidemiology and implications for research (D.L. Diehl, D. Eisenberg). 32. Biological mechanisms of acupuncture (D.J. Mayer). 33. Intricate tactile sensitivity: a key variable in western integrative bodywork (D.H. Johnson). 34. The science of breathing - the yogic view (R. Sovik). 35. Exploring the nature and functions of the mind: a Tibetan Buddhist meditative perspective (L. Rapgay, V.L. Rinpoche, R. Jessum).