Book reviews
detail: how they prepare the brains, how they collect the images, how they organize the names, etc. In my opinion, this section could be summarized into a couple of pages. In addition, the type of updated terminology used is explained in detail, but curiously, they do not use abbreviators, which is very common in neuroanatomy (e.g., sustantia nigra pars compacta; SNpc). The very heart of the book (from page 20 to 169) is a wonderful visual guide through the CNS shown in its magnificent luxury of details. The atlas is made with a clear didactic purpose with special emphasis on morphology, vascularization and functional MRI images. The last part is, from my point of view, the most interesting and innovative. It illustrates the connections that underlie the function of the nervous system. They use slices and sections from previous parts to outline the principal neuronal pathways. Neural pathways are depicted in two ways: they are drawn on the specimens or in piles of selected images in three-quarter view to give a sense of three dimensions. This seems a very good choice to show functional pathways that sometimes cover long distances in the CNS. Each diagram is accompanied by a synopsis of the pathway’s function. The authors give maybe too short descriptions of the pathways but the images are extremely useful for students of neuroanatomy and for the general public interested in the brain. One personal suggestion for future atlases would be to have more than morphological purposes. As the present book does, anatomy could be an excuse to introduce the function and even more, some images of pathological brains (like dementias, mental illnesses or abuse syndromes) could be given in an additional appendix, so the reader could observe not only the splendid images of a healthy brain and its multiple tasks, but also the clear morphological changes that reflect a malfunction in the brain. In this way, the use of the atlas would be extended not only for beginners but also for advanced students of neuroscience. Reference Economo, Constantin von, Koshkina, Georg N., 1925. Die Cytoarchitektonik der Hirnrinde des erwachsenen Menschen. J. Springer Verlag, Vienna.
Ana Perez-Villalba Universidad de Valencia, Instituto Cavanilles, Departamento de Biopsicologia y Neurociencia, Poligono de la coma s/n, 46980 Paterna-Valencia, Spain E-mail address:
[email protected] Available online 21 April 2007 doi:10.1016/j.jchemneu.2007.04.002
Neural Development and Stem Cells, 2nd ed., M.S. Rao (Ed.). Humana Press Inc., (2005). Price: $145.00, ISBN: 11-588-29-481-1 The book ‘‘Neural Development and Stem Cells’’ (Humana Press) edited by Mahendra S. Rao, provides a
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fascinating insight about an exciting and emerging field of neuroscience; Stem Cells Biology during Neural Development. The present edition of the book is continuation of first edition ‘‘Stem Cells and CNS Development’’. In present edition the editor has made sincere efforts to bring the diverse information on role of neural stem cells in nervous system development under one umbrella. This book covers the overall advancements made over the last two decades in the field of neural stem cells biology. The book comprises of total 15 chapters with wider objectives and indexes on different topics of developmental neuroscience and stem cells. Many contributors of this book are prominent and pioneer neuroscientists, neuropsychiatrists and developmental neurobiologists, well known for their research contributions. All authors (15 chapters) have tried to specifically deal with various aspects of current studies on stem cells, ranging from basic to applied and its possible application in neurological disorders. The first chapter elaborates the role of stem cells in both developing and adult nervous system. Second chapter gives an exciting insight about neurogenesis and gliogenesis by neural stem cells in the adult brain. In third chapter cellular and molecular properties of multipotent stem cells during development, proliferation and differentiation is discussed in length. The subsequent chapter 4, deals with the involvement of multipotent stem cells in embryonic development and identification markers of stem cells in the embryonic nervous system. In our opinion, Chapter 5, ‘‘Regulation of Neural Stem cells’’ is a very interesting and informative chapter. In this chapter, authors describe that how neural stem cells play a key role in nervous system development by keeping balance between their proliferation, self-renewal, differentiation and cell death. Any dysregulation in these pathways of neural stem cells may lead to cancer, psychiatric, neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. Chapter 6 deals with neural progenitor cells mediated neurogenesis in olfactory bulb, hippocampus, sub-ventricular zone and olfactory epithelium. Chapters 7 and 8 provides basic information about glial precursors cells and involvement of neural progenitor and neural crest stem cells in the development of tumors/cancer of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Chapters 9 and 10 are devoted to adult olfactory epithelium and retinal stem cells biology. Chapter 11 is co-authored by the book editor himself. The mechanism of stem cells plasticity and transdifferentiation of neural stem cells in nervous system has been discussed in detail in this chapter. Chapters 12–14 give a basic overview about embryonic stem cells mediated neurogenesis and migration of stem cells in the adult nervous system. A brief introduction about neural stem cells, neurogenesis in adult brain and factors affecting the neurogenesis has been discussed and we consider it very informative for new entrants in this area of research. The last chapter of this book describes the perspective of neural stem cells in the neural transplantation paradigm as a successful therapy for various neurodegenerative disorders. This book is a well-balanced amalgamation of background knowledge, as well as valuable information for the scientists working in the dynamic area of stem cell research. The book is
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Book reviews
clearly written, well referenced and is equally important for basic neuroscientists, clinicians and young scientists. We would like to praise the editors/authors for incorporating the plates of colour photomicrographs for easy understanding. All the photomicrographs and illustrations are of high quality and selfexplanatory. This book is a wonderful compilation of high standard reviews. Most of the chapters are followed by a comprehensive conclusion of the topic in the end. A comprehensive set of references has been given at the end of each chapter. We feel that a scientific glossary could have been added at the start of each chapter to explain various scientific terms to the readers. Overall, this is a nicely concised book and will be very helpful in gaining knowledge about stem cells. We recommend this book as one of the reference book for researchers and congratulate the editors for compiling such a wide subject in a very concise form in this edition. S. Shukla Department of Neurological Surgery, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, USA V.N. Mishra Department of Neurology, Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences, New Delhi, India R.K. Chaturvedi* Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, 525 East 68th Street, A501, New York 10021, USA *Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 212 746 4565; fax: +1 212 746 4803 E-mail address:
[email protected] (R.K. Chaturvedi) Available online 4 May 2007 doi:10.1016/j.jchemneu.2007.04.003
Diversity in the Neuronal Machine—Order and Variability in Interneuronal Microcircuits, I. Soltesz. Oxford University Press, (2006). 238 pp. ‘‘Diversity . . .’’ surveys the Biology of the dizzying array of brain interneurons and makes serious headway into unraveling their complexity. Dr. Soltesz writes with a clear and entertaining style that keeps the reader’s interest throughout.
Although he intends this book to be read by a wide audience, it helps to have some background in Neuroscience. I am not a physiologist and found some examples hard to follow without careful study, but the main points were always evident. He begins with a description of a tropical rainforest, filled with straight trunks of countless trees, among which are intertwined branches of many smaller plants. It is a perfect analogy of the pyramidal cell-apical dendrite region of the hippocampus, with those many smaller species being interneurons; with this picture in mind, one becomes aware of the complexity of the system! The interneuron circuitry of the cortical regions of the mammalian forebrain, particularly the hippocampus, is emphasized, although other parts of the vertebrate nervous system and some invertebrate examples are mentioned. He defines the brain cortical interneuron as a neuron: ‘‘that, in its normal, non-pathological state, uses GABA as its primary fast neurotransmitter.’’ This definition encompasses many kinds of interneurons. In the CA1 region of the hippocampus, there are at least 16 distinct kinds of interneurons associated with the glutamatergic pyramidal output neurons. Of these 16, 4 innervate mainly/ exclusively other interneurons, while others innervate subregions of pyramidal cells, and some also send axon projections outside of the CA1 or hippocampus. Postsynaptic targets, dendritic patterns, and expression of immunocytochemical markers distinguish types. For example, three kinds of basket cells, which innervate pyramidal cell bodies mainly, include those with parvalbumin, cholecystokinin + VIP, and cholecystokinin + VGLUT3. But such classifications give only a hint at interneuron complexity. Anatomically defined cells may not match physiological criteria, and the number of interneuron types may be much greater than we imagine. Thus, much of the book concentrates on showing that it is wrong to focus too much on idealized forms, because there is cell-to-cell variability affecting neuronal responses. It defines two main forms of interneuron heterogeneity: variability (variance in a particular parameter such as peak sodium current) and diversity (subgroups within cell or synapse populations). Dr. Soltesz’s approach is systematic—first developing a model that makes predictions (e.g., predicting strength of inhibition of postsynaptic cell firing within different parameter ranges), and then providing real examples that support the model. Changes in variance can occur without a shift in the mean and vice versa, and changes in diversity can occur without changes in either of these. For example, change in the diversity index of GABAergic inhibitory synaptic events can affect firing, even when mean and variance of event amplitude and frequency are unchanged. Then, he shows that interneurons are not controlled by rigid predetermination of type, but rather they adjust their conductance based on target activity level, probably using various homeostatic mechanisms. Finally, Dr. Soltesz considers the role of interneurons in complex networks, especially
