Edward G. Jones’ The Thalamus is one of the most cited publications in neuroscience. Now more than 20 years on from its first printing, the author has completely rewritten his landmark volume, incorporating the numerous developments in research and understanding of the mammalian thalamus. As a leading authority on thalamus biology and function, Edward G. Jones shows how knowledge of the thalamus has developed with the introduction of new technologies and ideas. The author's photographic skills are exhibited in brilliant preparations of thalamic structure in a wide range of common and uncommon species. The Thalamus is both an up-to-date scientific review of virtually all aspects of forebrain function and a work of immense neuroscientific scholarship. It forms an essential reference for neuroanatomists, neurophysiologists, molecular neurobiologists, developmental neurobiologists and clinicians its deep historical perspective will be of value to historians of science.

• Contains a huge range of photographic examples of thalamic structure, from common animal species and humans, to rarities such as the monotremes • Completely up-to-date, incorporating new details of molecular and genetic mechanisms of forebrain development • A unique, one-person perspective from a leading authority on the science, history and literature of this fascinating topic

Contents

Part I. History: 1. The history of the thalamus; Part II. Fundamental Principles: 2. Descriptions of the thalamus in representative mammals; 3. Principles of thalamic organization; 4. Thalamic neurons, synaptic organization and functional properties; 5. Chemistry of the thalamus; Part III. Development: 6. Development of the thalamus; Part IV. Individual Thalamic Nuclei: 7. Ventral nuclei; 8. Medial geniculate complex; 9. Lateral geniculate nucleus; 10. Lateral posterior and pulvinar nuclei; 11. Posterior complex of nuclei; 12. Intralaminar nuclei; 13. Medial nuclei; 14. Anterior nuclei and lateral dorsal nucleus; 15. Ventral thalamus; 16. Epithalamus; Part V. Comparative Structure: 17. Comparative anatomy of the thalamus; 18. The human thalamus; Part VI. Conclusions: 19. Concluding remarks; References; Index.

Review

'While the early edition was truly remarkable, the two-volume, second edition of 1679 pages of expanded size represents an effort reminiscent of Polyak's 1390-page tome …The basic organization and many features of the first edition are carried over to the second, but this is bigger and better in every way. Most impressive, the second edition is profusely illustrated with drawings, photographs of investigators, and especially, photomicrographs of brain sections through the thalamus. The photomicrographs are not just of a brain section here and there, but of series of sections from the same cases, and not just from the laboratory species that we can view in the many stereotaxic atlases that are now available, but also of species such as tree shrews, galagos and the egg-laying monotremes.' Jon H. Kaas , Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University