Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology
Product Description
Bryan Kolb and Ian Whishaw’s Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology was the first text to bring a comprehensive introduction to contemporary human neuropsychology to the undergraduate classroom. It gave students access to an extraordinary amount of cutting-edge research and made it coherent, relevant and understandable—with a presentation that reflected the authors’ superb communication and teaching skills.
That text returns in extensively updated new edition that keeps pace with the latest research while maintaining its trademark clarity and student-friendliness. And with its enhanced full-color art program, new case studies, and new companion Web site, the Sixth Edition provides both the most up-to-date understanding of the field and the most effective ways to teach and learn it.
Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology
M. Lilliquist said,
Wrote on March 16, 2010 @ 1:16 am
I was very impressed with the 3rd edition of this book back when I was in graduate student, and the 4th edition seems to have kept up the high standards. I highly recommend this book for anyone approaching advanced studies in any behavioral or neuroscientific field.
This textbook covers human neuropsychology from a more scientific, as opposed to clinical, viewpoint than many other graduate-level textbooks. Perhaps this is due to the authors’ own research experiences, which have been conducted primarily with animal models. Personally, I think that this is a great strength, since the authors very effectively tie together the findings from human and animal work, and fill in the gaps which would remain speculative if one had to rely solely upon research with human subjects and clinical cases.
What this means is that there is very limited discussion of assessment and diagnosis, but a thorough review of the anatomical and neurochemical organization of the brain, and well as a thorough review of brain function broken down by behavioral domain (sensory, motor, language, memory, etc.) and by cortical region (frontal, temporal, parietal etc.).
Although published in 1996, this book still remains fundamentally state of the art, and a fine textbook in the field.
Rating: 5 / 5
Darioz Svabodas said,
Wrote on March 16, 2010 @ 3:08 am
I used this text in its 4th edition in graduate school and I found it to be one of the clearest, concise, and best-illustrated textbooks on brain and behavior I’d ever read. The double column presentation of the text made reading and study a bit easier. Some of the motor and sensory pathway figures in the 4th edition were excellent–they were well detailed and presented in an appropriate amount of space on the page. However, this 5th edition is by far an inferior product. The text is now single column, and worst of all the once large, eye-catching, and detailed figures are too often shoved over into the margin–in many instances the 4th edition illustrations have been replaced by tiny dumbed-down figures. I cannot recommend this edition to students or instructors. A 5 for the text, a 1.5 for the presentation and illustrations.
Rating: 3 / 5
M. Maksimik said,
Wrote on March 16, 2010 @ 3:31 am
I just wanted to point out a few things for those looking to find a deal on the editions pubished before the fifth. I bought the 4th edition for a class, saved some bucks, but I have been having to constantly check with folks who have the 5th edition because many chapter and heading locations have changed between the two editions. In addition to this, there are several new chapters that reflect the development of neuroscience in the years between the two editions, such and brain imaging and plasticity. Now after struggling with the earlier edition for two months I am having to biuy the fifth to get the assigned chapters that are not in the fourth.
So, the 4th edition certainly is a good text, but be aware of the changes if you are using this for classwork.
Rating: 4 / 5
Chandra Chandrasekaran said,
Wrote on March 16, 2010 @ 5:53 am
This book is an excellent reference on neuropsychology. I am a graduate student in neuroscience and I was pleasantly surprised to note that this book was very thorough in its discussion of different topics. My research concerns aspects of activity in the temporal lobe and the authors have discussed some of the cutting edge literature.This book is definitely a cut above the normal neuroscience textbooks.
The authors have clearly taken the time to go through the literature and pick out interesting papers and placed them in a quick and readable manner. I would recommend this book to any student of systems neuroscience for a good introduction to the fascinating aspects of brain function. In fact I would go as far as saying that this book is an ideal companion to the now dated bible of neuroscience (Kandel, Schwartz and Jessel).
Rating: 5 / 5
Steven A. Peterson said,
Wrote on March 16, 2010 @ 6:47 am
This work is titled “Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology.” The work provides a very nice perspective on what is know about the human brain and how it affects our thinking and decision-making.
One positive feature: it is well written and you do not have to be a doctoral student in neuropsychology to follow the book from chapter to chapter.
A second positive feature is the wide ranging coverage of basic subjects–from the evolution of the brain to its basic organization to the structure and function of the cortex to a discussion of higher functions (such as memory, language, emotions, and so on), as well as abnormalities that can occur in the brain.
All in all, a valuable volume that provides the reader with a good introduction (at more than a very basic level) to the structure and functioning of the human brain. It also makes us think a little bit about what it means to be a human.
Rating: 4 / 5