Book review on "Neurosciences"
"Neurowissenschaften" by Mark F. Bear is a very well done translation of the successful English language original edition. The book is aimed at beginners and therefore does not provide a complete reference work for advanced users I have seen so far in a German-language neuroscience textbook. The basics are presented in a didactically meaningful way.
The illustrated atlas of human neuroanatomy, which is helpful for newcomers, provides an overview on 30 pages, but in my opinion the purpose of the following 13 exercise sheets is at least questionable.
The focus of this book is on Part Three: Brain and Behaviour. Fortunately, some content adjustments were also made for the German version: Six of the 24 guest contributions ("Köpfe und Ideen") come from German neuroscientists. For example, a nice contribution by Helmut Kettenmann corrects the role of the glial cells in the CNS, which was underestimated in the original work. The textbook has also been adapted to the German neuroscientific research landscape in the "Further reading" section at the end of each chapter. Of course, the translation also loses some of the linguistic brilliance, for example in the pun pumping ions.
An accompanying DVD has also been released that contains all the illustrations in digital form. Unfortunately, this DVD costs an additional 25 euros.
Conclusion: Advanced neuroscientists may want to purchase the original English edition, which comes with an "Instructor's Resource CD-ROM", or look for a more comprehensive compendium. For beginners, however, it is a really well-done textbook that is better than the competition in many respects.
