The Nervous System and the Heart

Gert Ter Horst and a panel of recognized experts illuminate the complexities and importance of heart-brain and brain-heart interactions in human health. These distinguished authorities critically review what is known about autonomic control of the heart, hypothalamo-pituitary- adrenal modulation, heart pain, modulation by humoral factors, and the relationship between cognitive/neuropsychiatric disorders and heart disease. Highly relevant and up-to-date, The Nervous System and the Heart offers the first comprehensive treatment of the important mutual interactions of the heart and the brain. By integrating specialist knowledge in cardiology with that from neuroscience, this important book constitutes a brilliant guide to today's novel approaches to neural control of the heart and consequent reduction of cardiovascular mortality. In The Nervous System and the Heart, Gert Ter Horst and a panel of distinguished authorities illuminate the complexities and importance of heart-brain and brain-heart interactions in human health. These well-regarded experts critically review what is known about autonomic control of the heart, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal modulation, heart pain, modulation by humoral factors, and the relationship between cognitive/neuropsychiatric disorders and heart disease. Other topics treated include the role of the corticosteroids in both the cardiovascular control circuitry and the myocardium, the role of cytokines in cardiovascular regulation and in the process of arteriosclerotic plaque formation, and the occurrence of mood disorders in heart disease patients.
Highly relevant and up-to-date, The Nervous System and the Heart offers the first comprehensive treatment of the important mutual interactions of the heart and the brain. By integrating specialist knowledge in cardiology with that from neuroscience, this important book constitutes a brilliant guide to today's novel approaches to neural control of the heart and the prospects for consequent reduction of cardiovascular mortality.

I Autonomic Control.- 1 Nerve Supply of the Heart.- 2 Emotions and Heart-Activity Control: Neurocircuitries and Pathway Interactions.- 3 Circadian Organization of the Autonomic Nervous System.- 4 Neuropathology and Cardiovascular Regulation: Fundamental Aspects.- 5 Neuropathology and Cardiovascular Regulation: Clinical Aspects.- II The Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenal System and the Heart.- 6 Stress, the Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenal System, and the Heart.- III Heart Pain.- 7 Cardiac Nociceptive Systems.- 8 The Neuroanatomy of Cardiac Nociceptive Pathways: Differential Representations of "Deep" and "Superficial" Pain.- 9 Neurophysiology of Heart Pain.- 10 Neuroimaging of Heart Pain.- IV Humoral Factors.- 11 The Central Renin-Angiotensin System in Cardiovascular Regulation.- 12 Mediators of Inflammation in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.- V Heart Disease and Brain Dysfunction.- 13 Heart Disease and Cognitive/Neuropsychiatric Disorders.