Nolte's The Human Brain: An Introduction to its Functional Anatomy

by Todd W. Vanderah PhD, Douglas J. Gould PhD, FAAA

Overview

**Selected for 2025 Doody’s Core Titles® in Neuroscience**

Acquiring a solid understanding of the gross anatomy of the brain, spinal cord, and brainstem is a challenging task—one that’s made easier and more enjoyable with Nolte's The Human Brain: An Introduction to Its Functional Anatomy, 9th Edition. This highly regarded textbook demystifies the complexities of all key topics in functional neuroanatomy and neuroscience, using a clear writing style, interesting examples, and high-quality visual cues to provide the ideal depth of well-rounded coverage.

• Uses a succinct, easy-to-understand writing style and plentiful diagrams to help you understand a difficult and often intimidating subject.
• Features highly templated, concise chapters that reinforce and expand your knowledge.
• Includes more Clinical Focus Boxes throughout, including neuropathology and neuropharmacology.
• Provides a real-life perspective through clinically relevant examples, up-to-date neuroimaging techniques, integrated coverage of neurogenetics and neuroimmunology, and superb illustrations that support and explain the text.
• Features a glossary of key terms that elucidates every part of the text, complemented by 3-dimensional images of the brain and the most up-to-date terminology throughout.
• Helps you gauge your mastery of the material and build confidence with multiple choice questions that provide effective chapter review and quick practice for your exams.
• An eBook version is included with purchase. The eBook allows you to access all of the text and figures, with the ability to search, customize your content, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud.

Evolve Instructor site with an image and test bank is available to instructors through their Elsevier sales rep or via request at https://evolve.elsevier.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780443126864
Publisher:	Elsevier Health Sciences
Publication date:	06/19/2025
Edition description:	9th ed.
Pages:	704
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.88(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Todd W. Vanderah is Regents Professor and Head, Department of Pharmacology, Co-Director of the MD/PhD Program at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

Douglas J. Gould is Distinguished Professor and Chair in the Department of Foundational Medical Studies, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, Michigan.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to the Nervous System
2. Development of the Nervous System
3. Gross Anatomy and General Organization of the Central Nervous System
4. Meningeal Coverings of the Brain and Spinal Cord
5. Ventricles and Cerebrospinal Fluid
6. Blood Supply of the Brain
7. Electrical Signaling by Neurons
8. Synaptic Transmission Between Neurons
9. Sensory Receptors and the Peripheral Nervous System
10. Spinal Cord
11. Organization of the Brainstem
12. Cranial Nerves and Their Nuclei
13. The Chemical Senses of Taste and Smell
14. Hearing and Balance: The Eighth Cranial Nerve
15. Atlas of the Human Brainstem
16. The Thalamus and Internal Capsule: Getting to and From the Cerebral Cortex
17. The Visual System
18. Overview of Motor Systems
19. Basal Nuclei
20. Cerebellum
21. Eye Movements
22. Cerebral Cortex
23. Drives and Emotions: The Hypothalamus and Limbic System
24. Formation, Modification, and Repair of Neuronal Connections
25. Atlas of the Human Forebrain
Answers to the Review Questions
Glossary
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A highly visual, easy-to-follow approach to one of the most challenging areas of human anatomy

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Magdalena Muchlinski, Masters/Doctorate (MA; PhD)(Oregon Health and Science University)
Description: This book is an engaging overview of the human brain. Its focus is to provide readers with all the foundational knowledge needed to explore neuroanatomy and, in many instances, neurophysiology with greater focus. This book was written for, as stated in the preface, for students, enthusiasts, and faculty. The authors weave fascinating stories of how neurobiology has been explored within not only our species, but across mammals. In fact, the authors' use of the comparative method makes the material engaging and informative, therefore, enticing the readers to explore topics further by examining the bibliography. The images provided, although stilted, are detailed and accurate, and therefore reinforce knowledge and increase comprehension. Overall, it is a well-written textbook that is easy to follow.
Purpose: One of the main challenges an educator faces is staying up to date on an entire field of science they may not be entirely familiar with due to subfield specialization (neuroanatomy vs. neurophysiology vs. neuropharmacology). The goal of this book is to update a classic text (now in its eighth edition) and present the information in a clear and engaging fashion using our acquired and current body of knowledge on neuroscience. Easy, right? Not really, but the authors did a fairly good job. Not surprisingly, areas that we know less about (e.g., extrapyramidal neurophysiology; D1 / D2 receptor activation) are less well covered, while more ancient neuroanatomy (e.g., somatosensation) are beautifully described and meet or exceeded the proposed objectives.
Audience: This book targets students, neuro-enthusiasts, and faculty.
Features: The book was reviewed in both print and digital formats. The digital textbook is perhaps the best I have engaged with given the clear heading tabs and search function. For students and faculty, there are robust and clearly written review questions at the end of each chapter. For researchers and enthusiasts, a literature review is also provided to explore what the primary literature has to offer (although links are not provided to the primary literature reference within the body of the chapter, which is unfortunate).
Assessment: Although I do not recommend this as a neuroscience textbook for an integrated, systems-based medical school curriculum, I do recommend it to educators and undergraduate/graduate neuroscience students. The foundational knowledge is presented in a clear and straightforward fashion. Moreover, the clinical boxes will help educators focus on which clinical knowledge is high yield. This, in part, is due to the fact that the authors have decades of experience teaching in multiple medical school curricula and can provide the relevant and key points clearly. As written above, my complaints are minor (e.g., provide the reference link to the main text), but there are always ways to improve a textbook. The images provided are stylistically awkward. The micrographs are great, but the overlays leave much to be desired (e.g., red/green lines on the same micrograph). The heading and labels are great and the information is perfect, but the presentation appears stilted. Prior to reviewing this book, my go-to text for neuroscience foundational knowledge was Neuroscience, 6th edition, Purves et al. (Oxford University Press, 2017). Although I found the writing clearer in this Nolte revision, the images in Purves' book are superior as they are clearer and easier on the eyes and therefore more useful in teaching presentation. However, the chapter outlines are the best I have seen, and in fact, provide students with a handy, high-yield summary of what is to come and what may have already been learned via beautiful, clear statements.

Doody's Review Service

"Popular for its highly visual and easy-to-follow approach, Nolte's The Human Brain helps demystify the complexities of the gross anatomy of the brain, spinal cord and brainstem. A clear writing style, interesting examples and visual cues bring this extremely complicated subject to life…" –Doody’s Review Service

From the Publisher