NORMAL AND PATHLOGIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD.

Abstract

The field of developmental neurobiology is one of the most dynamic and exciting research areas within the life sciences today. The use of molecular and genetic techniques has revolutionized our appreciation of the events underlying the development of the nervous system. The accelerating pace of our understanding, together with the likely developments that will follow completion of the mapping of the human genome, mean that it is likely that, within the next few decades, we will begin to gain a real insight into the basis of developmental neuropathologies. It should also be possible to make sense of the apparently disparate neurological and somatic anomalies seen in many of these conditions and to escape the limitations of purely phenomenological descriptions of developmental defects to which we have been restricted in the past. To be of value, a contemporary text on this subject must therefore look forward, rather than backward, in its philosophy. But this alone is not enough. In addition, we have come to expect a very high quality of writing, organization and illustration in the best of modern textbooks if they are to succeed in what is a highly competitive market. Unfortunately, Normal and Pathologic Development of the Human Brain and Spinal Cord does not satisfy any of these criteria. The writer of the preface and the authors indicate that the book is aimed both at students and researchers, but I fear that it will fulfil the requirements of neither. The book is fundamentally an account of the morphological events which take place between the induction of the neurectoderm and the end of gestation. It is composed of two parts: the first deals with normal development, while the second is concerned entirely with pathology. The first part on the book, dealing with normal development, makes only the most cursory allusions …