Clinical Neuroscience

A meaty assembly of science, uniquely presented to provide a comprehensive study of clinical neurological and psychiatric conditions. From the book's provocative cover art (an artist's creative rendering of her own (post-stroke) brain's circulatory system as viewed by a carotid angiogram - throughout each thorough chapter, this publication should be a must-read for students dedicated to consuming the latest insights of their specialty.

I read the text from cover to cover in the summer of 2005, three decades after my last college Psychology course, which makes me a complete neophyte in the field. Yet, it is clear from reading the book that its contribution to the understanding of the brain and its role in an individual's mental life - both normal and abnormal - is strong. As daunting may be the idea of launching into a technically dense exploration of neuroscience even for psychology or biology majors, it is even more so for lay men and women. When I cracked open the book, I anticipated an enervating tramp through a bog of arcane terms and concepts that would leave me glassy eyed and spent. Instead, researchers Lambert and Kinsley introduced me to the vast panorama of the brain and the very stuff of what makes us human. The authors say as much on page three when they write: "We are defined by our brains more than any other organ in our body." What follows are 500-plus pages of discussion of all the structures of the brain and its seemingly infinite substructures right down to the plucky neurons that fire in perfect sequence to grace the owner with motion, enrich his life with thought, and perform a constellation of other functions. The text is chock full of theories, discoveries, and still inchoate investigations that seem to serve only to open up new vistas for exploration. Each nugget of information that is mined, this text shows, seems to give rise to newer and ever more complicated questions to answer. The catalog seems endless, yet Clinical Neuroscience arms the reader, especially serious students of the discipline, with a comprehensive guide. The text is spread over 13 chapters and its topics are farmed out among four major parts that survey the field in the foundations of clinical science. It then turns its attention to homeostasis -- its establishment, its disruption, and its healthy maintenance. Each of the chapters under those headings examines the components of homeostasis before turning to the plagues of the mind - mood disorders, schizophrenia, drug addiction, anxiety disorders, stress and coping, eating regulation and associated dysfunctions. A key attraction in the book is the set of side bars on The Investigators. These descriptions accompany the chapters and profile the lives and interests of pioneering researchers in selected fields of brain study. To give flesh and blood context to the arcane maladies of the brain, the text also profiles some victims of brain or physical malfunctions and how the victims have coped. It even includes a bio on Mike the headless chicken, a barnyard fowl that lost his head to a farmer's axe nearly six decades ago but not his brainstem, which he used to good effect for two years to march into fame and immortality as a living example of the alliance between the lower brain and the body. Ironic as it might sound, therefore, Clinical Neuroscience is a page-turner that keeps the student of neuroscience coming back for more. Like a

This is a clear and readable text that can not only be used to introduce students to basic topics in neuroscience (neuroanatomy and neurophysiology) at the undergraduate level, but can also be used to effectively relate these topics to the study of neurological and psychiatric conditions at either the undergraduate or graduate level. This is a fairly unique text that integrates a broad mental health perspective when approaching neuroscience--it can be utilized in courses in psychology and biology or nursing.