Martin J.H. Neuroanatomy: text and atlas

London: McGrow-Hill, 2003. - 874 p.Neuroanatomy plays a crucial role in the health science curriculum, particularly as a means of preparing students for understanding the anatomical basis of clinical neurology. The routine use of the high-resolution brain imaging technique magnetic resonance imaging further underscores the importance of studying human neuroanatomy.
Neuroanatomy is the basic science for localizing function in the human brain. Imaging helps to identify, in the living brain, the particular brain regions where drugs may be acting to produce their neurological and psychiatric effects. Various experimental approaches in animals—including pathway tracing, localization of neuroactive chemicals using immunological techniques, and the effects of lesions—provide a rigorous scientific basis for localization of function that can be correlated with imaging data in humans. Thus, human brain imaging and experimental approaches in animals provide the neuroscientist and clinician with the means to elucidate and localize function in the human brain, to study the biological substrates of disordered thought and behavior, and to identify traumatized brain regions with unprecedented clarity. Nevertheless, to interpret
the information obtained requires a high level of neuroanatomical competence.
Since the second edition of Neuroanatomy: Text and Atlas, clinical neuroscience has become significantly more dependent on localization of brain structures for treatments. Interventional electrophysiological procedures, such as deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease and other movement disorders, is almost routine in many major medical centers. Surgical intervention is now the treatment of choice for many patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. These innovative approaches clearly require that the clinician have greater knowledge of functional neuroanatomy to carry out these tasks.