Neuroscience for Rehabilitation.

This book contains 17 chapters that are written by a total of 21 contributors, 3 of whom are physical therapists. Written for students of the rehabilitative therapies," this book is intended to make the study of neuroscience more clinically relevant. The book is not successful in achieving its purpose. Although some chapters are adequate in their clinical content, other chapters, such as chapter 16, which is entitled "Development of the Nervous System," are deficient in their coverage of clinical relevance. Additional chapter-to-chapter inconsistencies are present with regard to both content quality and writing style.

With regard to content quality, some chapters (eg, chapter 7, "The Motor System 1: Lower Center," and chapter 9, "The Autonomic Nervous System") are superb in their presentation of established facts. In various other chapters in section 2, many of the facts are clinically irrelevant and much too esoteric for the needs of most students.

For the most part, the book is well-written, presenting a combination of readability and objectivity. In contrast, a few of the chapters (eg, chapter 1, "Introduction: Getting the Brain in Mind") contain numerous, sometimes inaccurate, generalizations about the nervous system. These latter chapters are replete with analogies regarding the brain. The brain, for example, was compared to grandma's knitting, a department store, a stack of pancakes, and more. I found most of these analogies unnecessary and mildly disconcerting.

The original figures used in this book, all of which are black and white, tend to be unremarkable in quality. Furthermore, some of the figures (eg, Figs. 3.5 and 13.2) are difficult to follow, due either to the lack of color-coded pathways or to poorly illustrated neuronal cell bodies. More importantly, is should be noted that some of the figures contain blatant errors. In Figure 6.3, for example, the geniculate ganglion is illustrated as being suspended from cranial nerve VIII, whereas in reality the geniculate ganglion has a relationship to cranial nerve VII. In Figure 9.2, the sympathetic (prevertebral and paravertebral) ganglia are incorrectly labeled.

Because of the book's shortcomings, I cannot recommend it as a required textbook for entry-level physical therapy students. Conversely, some of the chapters in the book (as indicated above) would be excellent for physical therapy students at all levels. Furthermore, many of the chapters contain more than enough detail to whet the appetites of graduate students and basic scientists alike. For these reasons, I recommend this book for adjunct reading only.