Body and Brain: A Trophic Theory of Neural Connections (review)

Body and Brain: A Trophic Theory of Neural Connections. By Dale Purves. Cambridge : Harvard Univ. Press, 1990. Pp. 231. $35.00; $14.95 (paper). This work focuses on one of the central themes of research in developmental neurobiology over the past few decades, viz., "the proposition that the changing size and form of the bodies of mammals and other vertebrates elicit corresponding changes in the connectivity of the nervous system . . . the trophic theory of neural connections." The latter refer primarily to synapses as well as the axonal and dendritic branches that link nerve cells and their targets. A working definition of the theory holds that "patterns of nerve cell connections—which is to say, the number and disposition of axonal and dendritic arbors and the connections they make—are subject to ongoing regulation by interactions with the cells that they contact." Thus these patterns are regulated in part by signals that derive from neural targets. 158 Irving M. Klotz ¦ Munchausen Syndrome ...