Concise Text of Neuroscience

Rating:
Summary: Very Concise
Review: With almost 700 pages and an ominously black cover, the exterior of this book places it with so many other neuroscience texts: long, dull and confusing. But read on - there may be more to this book than meets the visual cortex... Concise Text of Neuroscience aims to provide the medical student with a relevant knowledge of the main topics in neuroscience. It achieves this in fifteen chapters, each one integrating the necessary neuroanatomy and neurophysiology with a related section on clinical neurology. The neuroanatomy is described with the aid of illustrations which, while only in one colour, are beautifully clear. Clinical sections include case histories which allow the reader to apply the acquired knowledge to a realistic situation. "Further application" questions and excellent summaries add to the quality of this book as a learning resource. Adding further to this are the appendices, covering neuroembryology, neurological examination, neurological imaging, and a simple-but-detailed MRI atlas. To me, however, the most important characteristic of any book attempting to cover such a complex subject is clarity of the writing style. In this area Concise Text excels. It explains difficult concepts in an understandable fashion, and amazingly retains its conciseness - the conciseness that allows the integration of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and clinical neurology into one textbook. As a medical student, you will be required to have a working knowledge of neuroscience. If you're looking for a book that teaches the essentials with good detail, but omits the useless facts, then this could be a useful one to have.