In this groundbreaking book, leading experts detail the cellular and molecular cascades that cause selective degeneration of neuronal populations, and illuminate those genetic and environmental factors that are critical to the facilitation or suppression of the neuropathologic processes. Working from studies of human patients, as well as from cell culture and animal models, the authors demonstrate a heretofore unrecognized convergence of the causative pathogenetic mechanisms for clinically distinct neurological disorders. At center stage are the biochemical and molecular cascades that will ultimately lead to neuronal death—cascades involving oxyradical production, aberrant regulation of cellular ion homeostasis, activation of specific proteases, and activation of a stereotyped sequence of events involving mitochondial dysfunction. Individual chapters examine how these mechanisms—along with genetic and environmental factors—operate in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, Down’s syndrome, amyotropic lateral sclerosis, ischemic stroke, spinal cord injury, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.