- Email: [email protected]
Principles of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology (Second Edition)
Epilepsy Research 51 (2002) 207 www.elsevier.com/locate/epilepsyres
Book review Principles of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Second Edition By M. Marser Mesulam; Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, USA (2000), pp. 570; US$84.95 The original concept in developing the book Principles of Beha6ioral and Cogniti6e Neurology was to produce a complete, up to date, but concise book of behavioral and cognitive neurology that would meet the need of clinicians both in practice and in training. It covers the main topics of language, cognitive, attention, emotion and memory. It also includes a review of the basic science supporting each of the above-mentioned fields. In particular, it brings the reader up-to-date on the rapidly moving and exciting field of Alzheimer’s research at the cellular and molecular level, recent advances in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, the role of neuro-ophthalmology in the diagnosis of behavioral disorders, recent findings in the cognitive neuroscience of memory, and the effect of hormones on behavior. Most of these areas were not explored in detail in the first edition in 1984. The book begins with a comprehensive and fundamental chapter ‘Behavioral Neuroanatomy’ that explores the relevance of human brain architecture, connectivity, neurochemistry and physiology to behavioral interactions. It is considered the basis for the remainder of the book. The second chapter provides a detailed neuropsychological assessment of mental state which provides a summary of the primary deficits, their secondary effects on test performance, their relevance to structural integrity of the nervous system, their
impact on daily living, and their implication for diagnosis and management. Chapter three is about attention, which reviews the two clinical syndromes of acute confessional state and spatial neglect and their neurobiological basis. Chapter four provides information on memory and amnesia and the effect of bilateral damage to limbic structures on memory disturbance. The fifth chapter reviews aphasia using lesion studies. Chapter six discusses affective prosody and the aprosodias. Chapter seven reviews disorders of complex visual processing, and their importance, because of their frequency and scientific implications. Chapters eight to ten study diseases, which are related to behavioral disturbances and include temporolimbic epilepsy, aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia. The references at the end of each section are very helpful. Although this book contains a large bulk of information which is very useful in clinical medicine, it lacks discussions of developmental psychology, perception in children, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a very new technique used for mapping brain function. The print quality and size are excellent and there are numerous figures and examples that assist the reader. It is considered an excellent reference in the neurobehavioral field.
0920-1211/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. PII: S 0 9 2 0 - 1 2 1 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 5 9 - 1
Raidah Al-Baradie Department of Neurology, Har6ard Medical School, Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood A6enue, Boston, MA 02115, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Book review Principles of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Second Edition By M. Marser Mesulam; Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, USA (2000), pp. 570; US$84.95 The original concept in developing the book Principles of Beha6ioral and Cogniti6e Neurology was to produce a complete, up to date, but concise book of behavioral and cognitive neurology that would meet the need of clinicians both in practice and in training. It covers the main topics of language, cognitive, attention, emotion and memory. It also includes a review of the basic science supporting each of the above-mentioned fields. In particular, it brings the reader up-to-date on the rapidly moving and exciting field of Alzheimer’s research at the cellular and molecular level, recent advances in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, the role of neuro-ophthalmology in the diagnosis of behavioral disorders, recent findings in the cognitive neuroscience of memory, and the effect of hormones on behavior. Most of these areas were not explored in detail in the first edition in 1984. The book begins with a comprehensive and fundamental chapter ‘Behavioral Neuroanatomy’ that explores the relevance of human brain architecture, connectivity, neurochemistry and physiology to behavioral interactions. It is considered the basis for the remainder of the book. The second chapter provides a detailed neuropsychological assessment of mental state which provides a summary of the primary deficits, their secondary effects on test performance, their relevance to structural integrity of the nervous system, their
impact on daily living, and their implication for diagnosis and management. Chapter three is about attention, which reviews the two clinical syndromes of acute confessional state and spatial neglect and their neurobiological basis. Chapter four provides information on memory and amnesia and the effect of bilateral damage to limbic structures on memory disturbance. The fifth chapter reviews aphasia using lesion studies. Chapter six discusses affective prosody and the aprosodias. Chapter seven reviews disorders of complex visual processing, and their importance, because of their frequency and scientific implications. Chapters eight to ten study diseases, which are related to behavioral disturbances and include temporolimbic epilepsy, aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia. The references at the end of each section are very helpful. Although this book contains a large bulk of information which is very useful in clinical medicine, it lacks discussions of developmental psychology, perception in children, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a very new technique used for mapping brain function. The print quality and size are excellent and there are numerous figures and examples that assist the reader. It is considered an excellent reference in the neurobehavioral field.
0920-1211/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. PII: S 0 9 2 0 - 1 2 1 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 5 9 - 1
Raidah Al-Baradie Department of Neurology, Har6ard Medical School, Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood A6enue, Boston, MA 02115, USA E-mail: [email protected]