The Brain Book: Development, Function, Disorder, Health - Hardcover

Ashwell BMedSc MB BS PhD, Dr. Ken

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770851267 ISBN 13: 9781770851269

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2012

Synopsis

The brain (and mental health) is the most important medical issue of our time.

Just two handfuls in size and made of billions of nerve and ganglial cells, the living brain controls our thoughts, movements, behavior and emotions. It is the seat of our consciousness, yet scientists are still discovering how the living brain actually works.

The Brain Book combines the latest image technology with easy-to-understand authoritative text. Written by an international team of medical experts on brain science, it covers all aspects of brain function, from development and disorders, to the nature of consciousness, through to the aging brain and brain diseases. Topics include brain chemistry, memory, the teenage brain, illusions and hallucinations, music and the brain, sleep and wakefulness, anesthetics, degenerative brain disease and much more.

The book is organized into nine sections:

• Structure and Function
• Development
• The Senses
• Movement and Actions
• The Social Brain
• Mind, Consciousness, Mood and Psychosis
• Brain Plasticity, Injury and Repair
• Drugs and the Brain
• Aging and Disease

The Brain Book is a complete guide to the amazingly complex and intriguing structure that is the human brain. It is an essential reference for any library.

About this title

About the Author

Ken Ashwell, BMedSc, MB, BS, PhD, is Professor of Anatomy in the School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He was also the Chief Consultant for Anatomy Colour-in Flash Cards and The Human Body Identification Manual.

Reviews

Assuming no prior knowledge about the human brain on the part of its readers, this educational but nontextbook volume informs them of fundamentals ranging from anatomy to abnormalities and their treatment. Appropriately, since constructing vision is among the brain’s many remarkable talents, the work is generously visual; hundreds of color diagrams, photographs, and brain scans illustrate the information the text imparts. It first maps out the entire nervous system, from the body’s peripheral nerves to the spinal column to the geography of the brain itself. Ashwell then proceeds to physiological processes that the brain operates, such as digestion and movement, highlighting specific neural pathways dedicated to them and arriving at explanations of how neurons function. Such anatomical discussions prepare readers for the book’s most practical use, informing them of health issues associated with the brain. Proper childhood development is emphasized, problems like autism are addressed, and health problems encountered in adulthood—trauma, disease, addiction, aging, and psychopathology—are described. An informative general introduction, this will well serve the basic science collection. --Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770851267
• ISBN 13: 9781770851269
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352