Principles of Neuroanatomy

Aiming to make the study of neuroanatomy more interesting this introduction promotes the general principles of neural organization: transduction of stimulus energy, sequential feature analysis, progressive response synthesis, parallel processing, somatotopy, feedback modulation and feedforward control mechanisms, modular design, and many more fundamental concepts. To show these principles at work, many carefully chosen physiological and clinical observations have been included in the discussion of brain structures and pathways, and there is frequent reference to human behaviour and everyday experience. Separate chapters are devoted to each major neural subsystem, and have their own glossary. The many illustrations include simplified diagrams, schematics, animated sequences showing circuits in action, scanning electron micrographs, photographs of brain dissections, and classical illustrations of nerve cells and parts of the brain by famous neuroanatomists.