Larry W. Swanson

Depending on your point of view the brain is an organ, a machine, a biological computer, or simply the most important component of the nervous system. How does it work as a whole? What are its major parts and how are they interconnected to generate thinking, feelings, and behavior? Thisbook surveys 2,500 years of scientific thinking about these profoundly important questions from the perspective of fundamental architectural principles, and then proposes a new model for the basic plan of neural systems organization based on an explosion of structural data emerging from theneuroanatomy revolution of the 1970'sThe importance of a balance between theoretical and experimental morphology is stressed throughout the book. Great advances in understanding the brain's basic plan brain have come especially from two traditional lines of biological thought- evolution and embryology, because each begins with thesimple and progresses to the more complex. Understanding the organization of brain circuits, which contain thousands of links or pathways, is much more difficult. It is argued here that a four-system network model can explain the structure-function organization of the brain. Possible relationshipsbetween neural networks and gene networks revealed by the human genome project are explored in the final chapter.The book is written in clear and sparkling prose, and it is profusely illustrated. It is designed to be read by anyone with an interest in the basic organization of the brain, from neuroscience to philosophy to computer science to molecular biology. It is suitable for use in neuroscience corecourses because it presents basic principles of the structure of the nervous system in a systematic way.

At the crossroads of art and science, The Beautiful Brain presents Nobel Laureate Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s contributions to neuroscience through his groundbreaking artistic brain imagery.“Among the world’s greatest scientific illustrations. . . . They posit the thing between your ears as an immense cosmic universe, or at least one of the most intricate of all of nature’s creations. That the images are also undeniable as art only adds to the complexity.” — New York TimesSantiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) was the father of modern neuroscience and an exceptional artist. He devoted his life to the anatomy of the brain, the body’s most complex and mysterious organ. His superhuman feats of visualization, based on fanatically precise techniques and countless hours at the microscope, resulted in some of the most remarkable illustrations in the history of science.This selection of Cajal’s exquisite drawings of brain cells, brain regions, and neural circuits features accessible descriptive commentary, explored in the text from multiple This book is the companion to the traveling exhibition that marked the first time that many of these works, which are housed at the Instituto Cajal in Madrid, have been seen outside of Spain.In addition to showcasing Cajal’s contributions to neuroscience and exploring his artistic roots and achievement, The Beautiful Brain looks at his work in relation to contemporary neuroscience imaging, appealing to general readers and professionals alike.

This large format book sets a new standard in quality and clarity. Excellent reproduction and documentation sets this book apart from its counterparts. The main objective of Brain Maps is to provide information about rat brain anatomy that is accurate, convenient, documented, complete, and systematic. New computer and graphic techniques have been exploited to their fullest in what is sure to be an essential guide to neuroscientists in the laboratory.This work • Closely spaced Nissl sections (73) all selected from one serially-sectioned, celloidin-embedded brain.• Accompanying Aligned Drawings illustrate cell groups seen with Nissl stain, and fiber tracts seen with dark-field illumination.• Development of the nervous system illustrated in a series of diagrams.• Computer drawings designed with 2D and 3D computer applications in mind• Summary all cell groups in the Atlas are summarized in a 2D map of the central nervous system.• Nomenclature is documented critically from the primary neuroanatomical literature.• Large format, quality bound approx. 160 black and white plates.• Essential as a research and instructional aid.

Human brain imaging, connectomics, network analysis, and neuroinformatics are just some of the important current arenas in neuroscience addressed here. The book solves a fundamental problem by supplying the first global, historically documented, hierarchically organized human nervous system parts list. This defined vocabulary accurately and systematically describes every human nervous system structural feature that can be observed with current imaging methods, and provides an extendible framework for describing accurately the nervous system in all animals including invertebrates and vertebrates alike. Research for the book began in the late 1990s when the lack of a systematic vocabulary for neuroanatomy became a critical problem in developing databases and online knowledge management systems for the NIH Human Brain Project (1995-2005), which grew out of the Institute of Medicine's Committee on a National Neural Circuitry Database (1989). One outcome of this research was thepublication with Mihail Bota in 2011 of a Foundational Model of Connectivity. It provides the conceptual framework for this book, which is divided into three main parts. The first consists of four chapters discussing the rationale behind the Lexicon of nervous system parts, historical trends in the evolution of neuroanatomical concepts and nomenclature, the development of hierarchical nomenclature tables, and practical notes on using the Lexicon. The second part is the Lexicon itself, with separate entries for 1,381 standard terms. Each standard term has a textual definition including the method used for identification, age, sex, and species to which it applies, and a citation to the first use of the term as so defined. Each entry also has, where appropriate, chronological lists of nonstandard terms (10,928 in all): translations, alternate spellings, earlier delineations before naming, earlier synonyms, later synonyms, and partly corresponding terms. The third part is a set of 10hierarchical nomenclature tables of nervous system standard terms.