The Human Nervous System (PDF)

Now in its sixth best-selling edition, The Human Nervous System: Structure and Function continues to combine clear prose with high-quality tailor-made medical illustrations to achieve for neuroscientists and medical students a succinct explanation of the fundamental principles behind the organization, structure, and function of the human nervous system. The distinguished authors take advantage of the many recent advances in neurobiology and molecular biology to include new coverage of such critical discoveries as stem cells, apoptosis, the role of the amygdala in stress, and the significance of dendritic spines. Among the core topics given expanded treatments are pain and pain pathways, the visual system, development and growth of the nervous system, the chemical senses of smell and taste, and the limbic system. There is also fresh material on neuronal stem cells, the auditory and vestibular systems, neurotransmitters as the chemical messengers of certain brain circuits, the cerebellum, and lesions of the spinal nerves, spinal cord, and brainstem. Award-winning medical illustrator Robert J. Demarest has created new and revised legacy illustrations in cooperation with his neuroscientist coauthors, adding 24 figures to the previous 149. His illustrations are designed to extract and visually highlight the essence of the neuroanatomical features embedded in the complexities of the nervous system, thereby allowing the reader to match the structures of the brain with conventional X-ray pictures, and CT, MRI, and PET scans.

Highly praised and widely appreciated in its earlier versions, this new 6th edition of The Human Nervous System: Structure and Function incorporates all the latest neuroanatomical discoveries and offers medical students and interested neuroscientists a readily understandable and awe-inspiring view of the organization of the human nervous system. Its explanatory power and visual insight make this book an indispensable source of quick understanding that readers will consult gratefully again and again.