Brain Architecture: Understanding the Basic Plan

Now in its second edition, Brain Architecture is the continued exploration of how the brain works. It summarizes traditional views about brain structure-function organization clearly and comprehensively and elaborates a new four system network model of nervous system organization. Thoroughly updated and refreshingly clear, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the science of how the brain works. Oxford Clinical Neuroscience is a comprehensive, cross-searchable collection of resources offering quick and easy access to eleven of Oxford University Press's prestigious neuroscience texts. Joining Oxford Medicine Online these resources offer students, specialists and clinical researchers the best quality content in an easy-to-access format.

Table of Contents:
Preface to First Edition 1. Thinking about the Brain: Body and Mind 2. How the Brain Works: History, Structure and Function 3. The Simplest Nervous Systems: Neurons, Nerve Nets, and Behavior 4. Centralization and Symmetry: Ganglia and Nerves 5. The Basic Vertebrate Plan: Transverse Divisions 6. Neurogenesis: Longitudinal Divisions, Parts List, and Adult Flatmap 7. Brain and Behavior: A Four Systems Network Model 8. The Motor System: Coordinating External and Internal Behaviors 9. The Behavioral State System: Intrinsic Control of Sleep and Wakefulness 10. The Cognitive System: Thinking and Voluntary Control of Behavior 11. The Sensory System: Inputs from Environment and Body 12. Modifiability: Learning, Stress, Cycles, and Damage Repair 13. Genome and Connectome

About the Author :
Milo Don and Lucille Appleman Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,USA

Review :
This short book deserves wide readership. It could serve both as a general introduction for the undergraduate and as a means to wide one's horizon for the experienced researcher. I was pleasantly surprised by the comparative and evolutionary approach used to introduce the major concepts, and I was drawn in by the historical context in which the story is told...a clearly written and logically organized overview of the major functional subdivisions of the vertebrate nervous system...Swanson's writing style and his ability to present complicated systems and relationships will make this book particularly accessible to students, and generally useful to anyone interested in the neurosciences...commendable job distilling the essential principles from an exceptionally complex subject, making the brevity of this book one of its greatest strengths. Larry Swanson, one of the great contemporary students of brain anatomy, has given us a broad overview of the structure and function of the brain using insights from embryology and from evolutionary comparison to highlight the principles that govern the anatomical substrates of behavior. This book will be read avidly by both students and practicing scientists. Neuroanatomy is usually associated with boring memorization and dense terminology. But Swanson has brought the subject to life by focusing on the principles that underlie brain structure and function. These principles, illuminated by an historical perspective and placed in an evolutionary context, actually constitute a theory of brain. This book's logical organization, intellectual sweep, and clear writing made it a joy for me to read.