1. Evolutionary Neuroscience: This Book's Scope and Ambition
2. A History of Comparative Neurobiology
3. Conservation in Vertebrate Brains
4. Evolutionary Changes in Overall Brain Size
5. Evolutionary Changes in Brain Region Size
6. Evolutionary Changes in Brain Region Structure
7. Evolution of Neuronal Connectivity
8. What's Special about Mammal Brains?
9. What's Special about Human Brains?
10. Reflections and Prospect
Georg Striedter is Associate Professor in the Department of
Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine.
He received his undergraduate training at Cornell University and
obtained a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in
1990. Most of his early research focused on the evolution of
various functionally interesting pathways in fish brains. He then
went on to study avian brains as a postdoctoral researcher at
the
California Institute of Technology. Specifically, he studied how
and why parrot brains are specialized for imitating sounds. Dr.
Striedter continued this work as a faculty member at UC Irvine and
broadened it to include
questions about how avian brains differ from those of other
vertebrates in terms of structure, function and development. In
1998, he received the C. J. Herrick Award for his contributions to
comparative neuroanatomy.
"This text will surely supersede its stated goal, to pique the
interest in brain evolution of advanced undergraduate and graduate
students. From the very beginning, with the fascinating example of
Bumpus' sparrows of 1898, we know this book will be more witty and
lively than most on this topic. Throughout the remaining text,
Striedter succeeds repeatedly by explicating the main principles of
brain evolution without encyclopedic or dry detail. As a result
of
this new text, we can certainly anticipate that young students of
evolutionary neuroscience will be enticed to address questions that
currently lack much empirical data."
--David C. Airey, Genes, Brain and Behavior
"This volume offers an enduring and succinct summary of the vast
archive of morphological data that reveals the wondrous diversity
of brains."
--Robert W. Doty, The Quarterly Review of Biology
"Georg Striedter has produced a wonderful book that discusses
current understandings of brain evolution. Overall, this is a
volume that most neuroscientists will enjoy reading, and some of
them, myself included, will find it useful as a textbook for
graduate students and advanced undergraduates."
--Jon H. Kaas, Nature Neuroscience
"In Principles of Brain Evolution, Striedter accomplishes several
important goals: he conveys the many aspects of brain structure and
function that are conserved across species; he illustrates in a
clear manner why species differences are real and should not be
dismissed; he explores the complex issue as to how conservation and
divergence--noted at various levels of neural organization--relate
to one another; and finally, he hypothesizes as to how the
rules of brain development have consequences for how the brains
evolve. Astonishingly, Striedter accomplishes these goals in some
360 pages of text! I highly recommend this book."
--C. A. Morgan, III, M.D., M.A., Yale Journal of Biology and
Medicine
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