Evolution of Neurosensory Cells and Systems Gene regulation and cellular networks and processes

This book is an overview of primary sensory maps of vertebrates, characterized by continuous and discrete properties. The eight primary sensory maps of vertebrates have unique features and use distinct molecular cues, cell cycle exit, and activity combinations during development, regeneration, and plasticity. As an introduction and overview, the book provides a short overview for all eight sensory senses and presents through evolution and gene regulatory networks, the molecular cues needed for sensory processing. Independent contributions are included for olfactory, vision, trigeminal, taste, vestibular, auditory, lateral line, and electroreception.

Ch1 The Senses: perspectives from brain, sensory ganglia, and sensory cell development in vertebrates Bernd Fritzsch, Karen Elliott Thompson Ch2 Olfaction - Development of the olfactory system: from sensory neurons to cortical projections Takeshi Imai Ch3 Vision and retina information processing: from opsins to the visual cortex. Paul R Martin, Bernd Fritzsch Ch4 Trigeminal projections: how to cross or not the multisensory projections. Bernd Fritzsch Ch5 Taste buds explained: from taste sensing to taste processing in the forbrain. Stephen D Roper, Robin F Krimm, Bernd Fritzsch Ch6 Assembly and functional organization of the vestibular system Karen L. Elliott1 Hans Straka2 Ch7 Morphological and Molecular Ontogeny of the Auditory System Jeremy S. Duncan, Sydney N. Sheltz-Kempf, Karen L. Elliott Ch8 Lateral line input to ‘almost’ all vertebrates shares a common organization with different distinct connections. Jacob Engelmann, Bernd Fritzsch Ch9 Electroreception depends on hair cell-derived senses in some vertebrates Sarah Nicola Jung, Valerie Lucks, Karen L Elliott, Jacob Engelmann, Bernd Fritzsch Ch10 An integrated perspective of commonalities and differences across sensory receptors and their distinct central inputs Karen L Elliott, Bernd Sokolowski, Ebenezer N. Yamoah, Bernd Fritzsch

Bernd Fritzsch Ph.D., is the Associate Director of the Aging Mind and Brain Initiative. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology, holds an Endowed Entrepreneurial Professor title and is a Fellow of the AAAS. He holds secondary appointments in the Department of Otolaryngology, is a member of the DELTA center and is core co-director of the recently awarded P30 in auditory research. He received his PhD from the University of Darmstadt, was awarded the prestigious Heisenberg Fellowship and has published over 250 papers and reviews. Prior to becoming the Chair in the Department of Biology he served as Assistant Dean for Research in the College of Medicine at Creighton University. He is on the editorial board of three journals, serves currently on an NIH study section, has been ad hoc reviewer for multiple journals and funding agencies across the globe and has organized multiple national and international meetings some resulting in either a book or special journal volume publications. His research focuses on the early development of the inner ears neurosensory system that is prone to be lost with age, isolating seniors from their normal social interactions. While cochlear implants serve as remarkably functional substitutes, a cure would require regeneration of the hearing organ. To this end he is manipulating gene cascades during mouse development to assess their possible use for the reconstitution of a normal hearing organ in the elderly. Karen Louise Elliot Thompson is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Fritzsch lab. She recently received the D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize in the biological and life sciences. Thompson received her doctorate in biology in 2013.