In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin proposed that an ant’s brain, no larger than a pin’s head, must be sophisticated to accomplish all that it does. Yet today many people still find it surprising that insects and other arthropods show behaviors that are much more complex than innate reflexes. They are products of versatile brains which, in a sense, think.

Fascinating in their own right, arthropods provide fundamental insights into how brains process and organize sensory information to produce learning, strategizing, cooperation, and sociality. Nicholas Strausfeld elucidates the evolution of this knowledge, beginning with nineteenth-century debates about how similar arthropod brains were to vertebrate brains. This exchange, he shows, had a profound and far-reaching impact on attitudes toward evolution and animal origins. Many renowned scientists, including Sigmund Freud, cut their professional teeth studying arthropod nervous systems. The greatest neuroanatomist of them all, Santiago Ramón y Cajal—founder of the neuron doctrine—was awed by similarities between insect and mammalian brains.

Writing in a style that will appeal to a broad readership, Strausfeld weaves anatomical observations with evidence from molecular biology, neuroethology, cladistics, and the fossil record to explore the neurobiology of the largest phylum on earth—and one that is crucial to the well-being of our planet. Highly informative and richly illustrated, Arthropod Brains offers an original synthesis drawing on many fields, and a comprehensive reference that will serve biologists for years to come.

The major goal of developmental neurobiology is to understand how the nervous system is put together. A central theme that has emerged from research in this field over the last several decades is the crucial role of trophic interactions in neural assembly, and indeed throughout an animal's life. Trophic—which means nutritive—refers to long-term interdependencies between nerve cells and the cells they innervate.

The theory of trophic effects presented in this book offers an explanation of how the vertebrate nervous system is related to—and regulated by—the body it serves. The theory rationalizes the nervous system's accommodation, throughout life, to the changing size and form of the body it tenants, indicating the way connections between nerve cells change in response to stimuli as diverse as growth, injury, experience, and natural selection.

Dale Purves, a leading neurobiologist best known for his work on the formation and maintenance of synaptic connections, presents this theory within the historical setting of earlier ideas about neural organization—from Weiss's theory of functional reorganization to the chemoaffinity theory championed by Sperry. In addition to illuminating eighty years of work on trophic interactions, this book asks its own compelling questions: Are trophic interactions characteristic of all animals or only of those with complex nervous systems? Are trophic interactions related to learning? What does the trophic theory of neural connections imply about the currently fashionable view that the nervous system operates according to Darwinian principles?

Purves lays the theoretical foundation for practical exploration of trophic interactions as they apply to neural connections, a pursuit that will help us understand how our own nervous systems generate change. The ideas in this book not only enrich neurobiology but also convey the profound relevance of neuroscience to other fields of life science.

This is the first book-length treatment of the frequency and distribution of neurologic and sense disorders. It is based primarily on special tabulations of mortality data for 1959–1961 applied to the U.S. census of 1960. Information on incidence, prevalence, and survivorship is provided for each major disorder and a summary chapter considers the frequency and geographic distribution of neurologic disorders in terms of age, sex, color, and demographic characteristics.

The strike of a praying mantis's forelegs is so fast that, once they are set in motion, the mantis cannot control its aim. How does it ever manage to catch a fly? A moth negotiating the night air hears the squeak of a hunting bat on the wing, and tumbles out of harm's way. How?

Insects are ideal subjects for neurophysiological studies, and at its simplest level this classic book relates the activities of nerve cells to the activities of insects, something that had never been attempted when the book first appeared in 1963. In several elegant experiments--on the moth, the cockroach, and the praying mantis--Roeder shows how stimulus and behavior are related through the nervous system and suggests that the insect brain appears to control behavior by determining which of the various built-in activity patterns will appear in a given situation. This slim volume remains invaluable to an understanding of the nervous mechanisms responsible for insect behavior.

Most neurology is done by general physicians rather than by neurologists. Still, neurology is perceived by doctors to be one of the most troublesome and difficult medical specialties. Neurologic symptoms are often vague and uncertain, and seemingly insignificant symptoms can reflect frightening disorders.

Thomas Glick, a superb teacher as well as an experienced clinician, has written this book in the belief that errors in handling neurologic cases stem not so much from a failure to command a daunting body of knowledge as from inadequate clinical reasoning. Dr. Glick shows how the skills of the primary-care physician can be applied to the special problems of neurologic history-taking and physical examination. He emphasizes time-saving ways to focus the exam and avoid diagnostic error. The book describes clear procedures for cases that the generalist can handle comfortably and offers guidelines on when (and how) to seek the advice of the consultant neurologist. Case histories, scattered liberally throughout the text, highlight the discussions and give the reader a rich sampling of specific methods of problem solving.

Clinicians who feel skeptical about the effectiveness of neurologic therapy or frustrated by its application will find here a commonsense approach to therapeutic planning. Chapters on ambulatory and chronic neurologic care also convey a positive sense of the broader therapeutic possibilities that exist in neurologic practice. Neurologic residents, senior medical students, psychiatrists, and allied health professionals, as well as primary caregivers, will benefit from the insights contained in this sensitive and articulate book.