The billions of cells in the human brain and the trillions of connections between them are the result of the complex interactions between our unfolding genetic programme and our environment. While our genome is the blueprint for development, it is the combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental perturbations that can lead to several devastating diseases including neural tube closure defects, schizophrenia, autism and attention deficit disorder. To understand the brain and its diseases, we therefore need to reveal the mechanisms by which the brain develops and the ways in which it can constantly change throughout a lifetime.
The gap between basic research into brain development and understanding of clinical disorders is now finally shrinking. This book provides a unique and timely view of this crossover, featuring in-depth discussion between leading developmental neurobiologists and clinicians involved in the management of patients with disorders of the nervous system. Chapters deal specifically with:

• cell fate determination
• cell migration and disorders of cell migration
• current concepts and new ideas about cortical arealisation, and disorders which can arise from incorrect arealisation
• genes implicated in the development of cortical connectivity and related pathologies such as schizophrenia and synaesthesia
• and susceptibility genes for cognitive disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, dyslexia, and attention deficit disorder

Cortical Development: Genes and Genetic Abnormalities contains contributions from researchers and clinicians working in the fields of molecular and cell biology, developmental neurobiology, neurology, neuropathology and psychiatry and thus offers an integrated approach to the problems of cortical development disorders.