The Human Brain: Essentials of Behavioral Neuroscience

This book possesses all the features one would expect from a textbook on brain anatomy and physiology, with the possible exception of end of chapter activities to promote learning. And with so many concepts and terminology, that would have been a good inclusion. The loss of a star is due to the lack of some critical information and, perhaps, an unbalanced coverage of information I would expect to find, combined with too few illustrations of complex concepts. For example, when discussing mood disorders, one of the most prevalent, AD(H)D has been omitted. Also, in the discussion of brain plasticity, no mention is made of Hebb or his famous mnemonic, "neurons that fire together, wire together." Nor does the author even mention critical brain functions such as attention and consciousness. Especially troubling is the exclusion of information about an exciting and highly significant discovery--"mirror neurons"-- given their impact on behavior and learning. Since the studies that discovered them were reported well before this book was published, timing does not serve as a justification for ommision of this important information. For a book with "behavioral" in the subtitle, I would expect more physiology and less anatomy and pharmacology. Although some seminal thinkers in neuroscience such as Damasio and LeDoux are mentioned, other notables such as Candace Pert and Jeffrey Schwartz are missing. The book covers a lot of territory in a generally understandable manner, using good textbook techniques (such as the bolding of newly introduced technical terms), but perhaps too much information, not necessarily of the right kind, or in the best way. For a better understanding of this complex subject, the reader would be advised to add other references such as Rita Carter's highly accesible overview of the brain called, "Mapping the Mind" along with some of the brain coloring books as an aid to learning brain anatomy and physiology.