Developmental neurobiology of the frog

These are a chapter by Gona, Uray and Hauser on the development of the cerebellum, a concise and clear review of the early edited by Emanuel D. Pollack and Harold D. Bibb, Alan R. Liss, development of the spinal cord 1988. $55.00 (300 pages) ISBN neurones revealed by neurotransmitter immunohistochemistry by 0 8451 2748 9 Roberts, and two chapters on the Jeremy 5. H. This is a proceedings volume of development of the tectum, one Taylor an American Society for Zoology by Kollros, and the other, concenDepartmentof conference, held in honour of trating on visual inputs, by ConHumanAnatomy, J. J. Kollros at the end of 1987. stantine-Paton. The chapter by Universityof Oxford, The conference concentrated on Kollros on tectal cell genesis in a SouthParksRoad, the development of frog neural variety of frog species is a particuOxfordOXl 3QX, UK. systems, and in particular, that larly worthwhile review. As a book subtitled the 'Decontrolling the limb. Seven of the twelve chapters concern the velopmental Neurobiology of the innervation of the limb and one Frog Limb', this would have been other the formation of nerve- a thorough review of much of the muscle junctions in vitro. This work of experimenters in this severe imbalance is my main criti- field. It covers the development cism. By omitting most of the of the lateral motor columns, developing neural systems of the the motor innervation and refrog, the book fails to live up innervation of the limb, the deto the promise of its title. In velopment of the sensory ganglia, this respect the volume also fails and experiments concerning the to meet its own stated a i m s specificity of sensory innervation. to emphasize the importance of Of these, I would pick out as the frog as a model system for noteworthy the chapters by the study of vertebrate nervous Lamb, Ferns and Sheard, and that system development. by Sperry, both on cell death in The last four chapters go some lateral motor column neurones way to redressing the imbalance. and the regulation of neurone

Developmental Neurobiology of the Frog

number. Lamb's chapter reviews the experiments that have led to his 'Meritocratic selection hypothesis'. This hypothesis concerns the consequences of cell death in formation of neural systems, suggesting that cell death results in a selection of neurones for their functional significance rather than simply matching numbers of neurones to a particular target size. The chapter by Sperry describes the natural inter-individual variation in the size of motoneurone pools and their target muscles, and how this relates to ideas about the role of cell death. As with other such proceedings volumes this book has suffered by the recent publication in journals of much of the more exciting work described. This renders many of the chapters outdated and lacking in the enduring qualities of useful reviews. For those with a particular interest in limb innervation this volume may be worthwhile, but for a wider audience, even one including herpetologists, the narrow spread of topics covered makes it of limited personal value.

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TINS, Vol. 12, No. 9, 1989