Book Review

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Fundamental Neuroscience, Third Edition

By: Larry R. Squire, et al. Fundamental Neuroscience, Third Edition, by Larry R. Squire, et al. Hardbound, 1280 pages, publication date: FEB-2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-12-374019-9 ISBN-10: 0-12-374019-3

Reviewed By: Jonice Owen, DC, FACO

Published: September, 2009
Journal of the Academy of Chiropractic Orthopedists
June 2009, Volume 6, Issue 3
Received: 21 August 2009
Accepted: 1 September 2009

This review is available from: http://www.dcorthoacademy.com © 2009 Owen and the Academy of Chiropractic Orthopedists This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

As a chiropractic doctor, I wanted to update my understanding of the Nervous System outside of seminars, and on my own time. As a chiropractic orthopedist, I was additionally motivated. With this in mind, I undertook locating a book that would best match my training, and purposes. Fundamental Neuroscience proved to be the best book.

One of the clearing house websites indicated the primary audience for Fundamental Neuroscience was graduate students in neuroscience, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neurobiology, with a secondary market of the related fields of psychology, cell biology, molecular biology, genetics and any other areas of science with cross over into neuroscience research. I added ‘chiropractic orthopedist’ into this list, and promptly purchased this text.

I was encouraged to read Floyd Bloom’s Chapter One, Fundamental of Neuroscience, “This textbook is for anyone interested in neuroscience. In preparing it we focused primarily on graduate students just entering the field, understanding that some of you will have majored in biology, some in psychology, some in mathematics or engineering, and even some, like me, in German literature. ... In many cases, advanced undergraduate students will find this book useful as well."

While reading some of the chapters, I felt I was inover- my-head. However, I persevered, and I was able to glean so much from the time I put in. Basically, the book offered me a chance to attend a college program in Neuroscience, at home. In reading the text, in the ordered sequence of chapters, I was as excited as if I was attending an extensive series of lectures, taking place in one lecture auditorium after the other. I was impressed by getting it straight from the horse’s mouth; leading neuroscientists author each chapter.

Larry Squire heads up the editorial team which includes: Darwin Berg; Floyd Bloom; Sascha du Lac; Anirvan Ghosh; and Nicholas Spitzer. These distinguished professors herald from the University of California, San Diego, from the Salk Institute or the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California. The contributors (94 in total, and including Floyd Bloom and Anirvan Ghosh), make up a primarily U.S. neuroscience teaching and research consortium, with a diversity of writing styles. This effort results in a finely edited, comprehensive text of great depth.

Fundamental Neuroscience follows a Section layout: Neuroscience; Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience; Nervous System Development; Sensory Systems; Motor Systems; Regulatory Systems; and Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience. The 1280 pages contain clear introductory information, 53 chapters, and an Index. Well-placed summaries and conclusions aide in recapping the exhaustive information presented. Excellent explanatory diagrams, highlight boxes, drawings, and electron microscopic photographs with explanatory diagrams or overlays pepper the text.

Although reading the book, front to back would be best, some readers may prefer to get their feet wet with Chapter 25, The Somatosensory System. This chapter was written by the highly-respected Professors Stewart Hendry and Steven Hsiao of John Hopkins University. They describe muscles spindles, golgi tendon organs, nociception and ascending paths to the thalamus in an easy-tounderstand manner. On Page 601, The Human Axis of Pain section describes the use of functional imaging studies of the human brain has revealed the “four areas of cerebral cortex which are active during (and often just prior to) the application of a painful stimulus.” The text offers detailed insight to the identification and pathways of these four areas; the first somatosensory cortex (SI), the second somatosensory area (SII), rostral anterior cingulate, and rostral insula).

If you prefer to delve into specific aspects of neuroscience, you won’t be disappointed. For example, Chapter 41, Circadian Timekeeping, page 934 summarizes the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the anterior hypothalamus:

“The SCN are the master circadian pacemakers in mammalian brain. The SCN oscillate in vivo, and also when placed in vitro. More importantly, however, the SCN generate output signals that lead to physiological and behavioral rhythms. Critical to the function of the SCN as the master pacemaker is its position at the interface between the outside world (detected primarily by retinal photoreception) and the light-insensitive tissues that comprise the rest of the body.”

Consciousness, the last chapter of the book, was authored by Christof Koch. Dr. Koch worked with Dr. Francis Crick, from 1976 until Dr. Crick’s death in 2004, on the biological nature of consciousness. Eric Kandel’s fascinating In Search of Memory, also discusses the neuronal basis of consciousness, in a chapter called Consciousness. I had previously read of Dr. Koch’s contributions as described by Dr. Kandel. Therefore, I was very interested to read the last chapter of Fundamental Neuroscience, and to have consciousness “one of the most enigmatic features of the universe” described to me by Dr. Koch:

Page 1223 “People willingly concede that when it comes to nuclear physics or molecular biology, specialist knowledge is essential; but many assume that there are few relevant facts about consciousness and therefore everybody is entitled to their own theory. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is an immense amount of relevant psychological, clinical, and neuroscientific data and observation that needs to be accounted for. Furthermore, the modern focus on the neuronal basis of consciousness in the brain-rather than on interminable philosophical debates-has given brain scientists tools to greatly increase our knowledge of the conscious mind.”

Dr. Koch probes into topics such as the neurobiology of free will and the neuronal basis of perceptual illusions. In addition to variety of writing styles and topics, you can expect some of the chapters to cover more physiology and microscopy, while other chapters weight towards electrochemistry, neurochemistry or neural pathways.

There are downsides to this book. It is hard to lug around a book weighing close to five pounds. It is too cumbersome to scan or copy a few pages to take with you to read. This book contains materials requiring great concentration, and is organized for “background reading” so you don’t come away with information on performing specific tests; I wouldn’t consider this as a desktop, at-a-glance type resource for a chiropractic orthopedist, rather an educational resource and research text. I was not able to locate much along the lines of “web access”, updates, question, discussion which some textbooks offer. I emailed one of the few links cited, and, unfortunately, received no reply. However, the authors are well-represented on the internet through their teaching institutions or through interviews and professional websites.

Although textbooks are frequently considered “outdated” upon their publication, this textbook would not fall in that category. I appreciated having the latest neuroscientific research, in one book, authored by many of the best in the neuroscience field. Through the extensive material made available in Fundamental Neuroscience, I felt my professional knowledge base updated, and my time well spent.