Neuroanatomy and Neuroscience at a Glance

Citation

Barker, R. A., Cicchetti, F., & Robinson, E. S. J. (2017). Neuroanatomy and Neuroscience at a Glance (5th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition runs to about 190 pages in eight parts and 66 numbered chapters. In the series' usual layout each chapter takes a double-page spread: a full page of labelled diagrams faces a page of compact text in bullet points with bold terms, cross-referenced by chapter number to related topics, and the sample chapter ends with a short "Did you know?" box. The edition won the British Medical Association's Student Textbook of the Year award in 2018, and a companion website at ataglanceseries.com/neuroscience adds clinical cases, multiple-choice questions, revision slides, flashcards and downloadable figures.

Part 1: Anatomical and functional organization (Chapters 1–11)

Development of the nervous system; Organization of the nervous system; Autonomic nervous system; Enteric nervous system; Meninges and cerebrospinal fluid; Blood supply to the central nervous system; Cranial nerves; Anatomy of the brainstem; Organization of the spinal cord; Organization of the cerebral cortex and thalamus; Hypothalamus. The sample chapter on development moves from the neural plate and neural tube through the alar and basal plates of the spinal cord and the radial-unit formation of the cortex to adult neurogenesis, and closes with developmental disorders such as anencephaly, spina bifida and cortical dysplasia, linked forward to the chapters on hydrocephalus and epilepsy.

Part 2: Cells and neurophysiology (Chapters 12–21)

Cells of the nervous system I: neurones; Cells of the nervous system II: neuroglial cells; Ion channels; Resting membrane and action potential; Neuromuscular junction and synapses; Nerve conduction and synaptic integration; Neurotransmitters, receptors and their pathways; Main CNS neurotransmitters and their function; Skeletal muscle structure; Skeletal muscle contraction. This part supplies the cellular and electrical basis for everything that follows, and includes two chapters on skeletal muscle.

Part 3: Sensory systems (Chapters 22–34)

Sensory systems: an overview; Sensory transduction; three chapters on the visual system (the eye and retina; the visual pathways and subcortical visual areas; visual cortical areas); two on the auditory system (the ear and cochlea; auditory pathways and language); Vestibular system; Olfaction and taste; Somatosensory system; two on pain (nociceptors and nociceptive pathways; pharmacology and management); and Association cortices: the posterior parietal and prefrontal cortex.

Part 4: Motor systems (Chapters 35–42)

Organization of the motor system; Muscle spindle and lower motor neurone; Spinal cord motor organization and locomotion; Cortical motor areas; Primary motor cortex; Basal ganglia: anatomy and physiology; Basal ganglia: diseases and their treatments; Cerebellum. The motor system is traced from the spinal level up to the cortex, basal ganglia and cerebellum, with one chapter given to basal ganglia disease and its treatment.

Part 5: Cognition and neural plasticity (Chapters 43–49)

Reticular formation and sleep; Limbic system and long-term potentiation; Memory; Emotion, motivation and drug addiction; two chapters on neural plasticity and neurotrophic factors (the peripheral and the central nervous system); and Techniques for studying the nervous system, an area the publisher says has been expanded in this edition.

Part 6: Applied neurobiology: the principles of neurology and psychiatry (Chapters 50–65)

Approach to the patient with neurological problems; Examination of the nervous system; Investigation of the nervous system; Imaging of the central nervous system; Clinical disorders of the sensory systems; Clinical disorders of the motor systems; Eye movements; three chapters on neurochemical disorders (affective disorders; schizophrenia; anxiety); Neurodegenerative disorders; Neurophysiological disorders: epilepsy; Neuroimmunological disorders; Neurogenetic disorders; Cerebrovascular disease; Neuroradiological anatomy. This is the clinical half of the book: how to approach, examine and investigate a patient, followed by the main groups of neurological and psychiatric disorder.

Parts 7–8: History of neuroscientific discoveries; Self-assessment case studies

Chapter 66, Historical neuroscience discoveries, stands alone as Part 7. Part 8 consists of case studies with questions and a separate set of answers.

Key Concepts

Part 1: Anatomical and functional organization

• Neural tube development: the folding and fusion of the neural plate that gives rise to brain and spinal cord, and whose failure produces defects such as spina bifida.
• Meninges and cerebrospinal fluid: the coverings of the central nervous system and the fluid system they contain.
• Brainstem and cranial nerves: the anatomy of the region through which most cranial nerves enter and leave the brain.

Part 2: Cells and neurophysiology

• Resting membrane and action potential: how ion channels set up and change the electrical state of a neurone.
• Synaptic integration: how inputs at synapses combine to determine whether a neurone fires.
• Neurotransmitters and receptors: the chemical signals of the central nervous system and their pathways.

Parts 3–4: Sensory and motor systems

• Sensory transduction: the conversion of a stimulus into a neural signal by a receptor.
• Nociceptive pathways: the route of pain signals, followed by their pharmacology and management.
• Lower motor neurone and muscle spindle: the spinal machinery of reflexes and movement.
• Basal ganglia and cerebellum: the two systems that shape movement, with basal ganglia disease treated in its own chapter.

Part 5: Cognition and neural plasticity

• Long-term potentiation: the lasting strengthening of synapses discussed with the limbic system and memory.
• Neurotrophic factors: molecules that support neuronal survival and plasticity in the peripheral and central nervous systems.

Part 6: Applied neurobiology

• Neurological examination and investigation: the clinical method of examining a patient and choosing tests and imaging.
• Neurochemical disorders: affective disorders, schizophrenia and anxiety treated through their neurochemistry.
• Neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disease: the major disorders that damage the brain progressively or through its blood supply.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and clinic in one short volume. The publisher describes the book as covering the anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology of the nervous system, and the contents bear this out: cellular neurophysiology, transmitters and drug treatment (pain, basal ganglia disease, psychiatric disorders) sit alongside gross anatomy and a substantial clinical part.
• A consistent, revisable format. Each topic is confined to two pages with a full page of diagrams, bulleted text and bold terms, which makes the book easy to scan and to return to before examinations.
• Strong cross-referencing. The sample chapter repeatedly points to later chapters (meninges, epilepsy, memory, depression), so the short spreads are tied into a single map of the nervous system.
• Built-in self-testing. The case studies with answers in Part 8 and the companion website's cases and multiple-choice questions give readers a way to check understanding.

Limitations

• Breadth over depth. Sixty-six topics in under 200 pages leaves about one spread per subject; the sample chapter itself sets rare genetic disorders of development aside as beyond the book's scope. It cannot replace a full neuroscience or neuroanatomy text.
• Dense, note-like prose. The bullet-point style suits revision, but readers meeting a mechanism such as the action potential for the first time may need a fuller explanation elsewhere.
• Edition date. The fifth edition dates from 2017, so the drug-therapy and imaging chapters reflect practice at that time.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within this neuroscience course the book is a compact companion rather than a main text. Crossman's Neuroanatomy: Illustrated Colour Text is the closest alternative: also short and illustrated, but organised purely by anatomical region and system and concentrated on structure and the effects of damage, whereas this book adds cellular neurophysiology, transmitters, cognition and psychiatry. Students who want the cellular and systems science explained at length should read it in a full introductory textbook, such as Bear, Connors and Paradiso's Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, Casey Henley's free Foundations of Neuroscience or the more comprehensive Neuroscience by Purves and colleagues, and use this book to consolidate each topic.

For clinical neuroanatomy, Part 6 is a preview of what Snell's Clinical Neuroanatomy and Blumenfeld's case-based Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases develop in depth; Blumenfeld in particular trains lesion localisation from history and examination, which this book only introduces. The neuropharmacology chapters lead naturally to Nestler and colleagues' Molecular Neuropharmacology or Cooper, Bloom and Roth's The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology, while quantitative and experimental treatments such as Dayan and Abbott's Theoretical Neuroscience and From Neuron to Brain lie well beyond its aims.

How to Use This Book

The publisher pitches the book at students starting a neuroanatomy or neuroscience course and as a reference in clinical training. It assumes basic cell biology and physiology; no previous neuroscience is required, but readers will move faster if they already know what a membrane potential is.

A practical approach:

• First pass alongside lectures: read Parts 1 and 2 in order, since the anatomical layout and the cellular chapters underpin the rest. Use each spread after the matching lecture or textbook chapter, redrawing the main diagram from memory.
• Systems: work through Parts 3 and 4 together with the corresponding chapters of a full textbook; the pain and basal ganglia chapters are good places to connect pathways with drug treatment.
• Cognition: Part 5 can be read selectively; Chapter 49 on techniques is worth reading before any research project.
• Clinical years: Part 6 is the core for medical students. Read Chapters 50–53 (approach, examination, investigation, imaging) before the disorder chapters, and use Chapter 65 on neuroradiological anatomy with real scans.
• Optional: Chapter 66 on historical discoveries is background reading.

Finish each part with the relevant Part 8 cases and the companion website's questions, and check unclear answers against a fuller text rather than the spreads alone.