Customer Reviews

Fundamental Neuroscience, 2e

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

In my humble opinion, Fundamental Neuroscience, edited by D.E. Haines, is an undiscovered gem! I am particularly impressed by the illustrations; this textbook combines actual photographs of brains, various types of brain scans, histological plates and color-coded schematic diagrams to give the best and most complete presentation of the nervous system that I have ever seen in my 30 years of university research and teaching. Whenever I have a question in mind concerning some basic aspect of the structure and function of the nervous system, I usually find myself leafing through this textbook to find the answer. Clearly, this book was written primarily for medical students; there are numerous excellent examples of clinical cases that can help cement the extensive information about the function and anatomy of the nervous system to the problems actually facing patients with neurological disorders. Some mention is also made of chemical and molecular mechanisms in neurotransmission, but in my opinion, this topic is not treated adequately. After all, most of the problems facing patients with neurological disorders are treated with drugs, so a thorough knowledge of the anatomical location and role of neuroreceptors is essential for medical students. Be that as it may, Fundamental Neuroscience spells out the circuitry of the nervous system more clearly than any other textbook that I know about, and this reason is enough for me to recommend it highly for those who need either to learn the topic from scratch or to have a comprehensive and well-written reference book on the shelf for consulting occasionally.

This book does indeed provide a great look at human neuroanatomy, with some discussion on function. As a graduate student taking a course and lab in neuroanatomy, this book will be helpful. The book is rather concise for the subject matter it is covering. Therefore, the writing style is condensed and difficult to follow at times. Perhaps the title should have been Fundamental Neuroanatomy, as opposed to Fundamental Neuroscience, as little discussion is given to research techniques and extrapolation from animal to human models.

I am a med. student and this book was suggested by the department probably due to the fact that it contains all the necessary information needed. One thing the department has ignored is that it is in some parts impossible to read. I admit that neurobiology is a hard subject, but in my opinion, the purpose of an author is to make it easier to the reader. Not once I was puzzled by the unnecessary complexity of the figures and the text which may be clear to someone who has already taken the course but on the other hand present a total mystery to a beginner.

I give this book 3 stars ...

For many medical students, deciding whether to buy a book is something the student has to decide, considering that studying a textbook is time away from studying a detailed syllabus, which is where the majority of test questions will come from. Textbooks are almost always a reference for a class. I thus find it shocking that this textbook does not have a glossary, which makes studying neuroscience much more difficult. Textbooks with glossaries are always much easier to use, and there is no such thing as an excellent textbook that doesn't have a glossary. In addition, there are no practice questions, which makes this book less useful for the medical student.