Evolution of Nervous Systems, Second Edition, Four Volume Set is a unique, major reference which offers the gold standard for those interested both in evolution and nervous systems. All biology only makes sense when seen in the light of evolution, and this is especially true for the nervous system. All animals have nervous systems that mediate their behaviors, many of them species specific, yet these nervous systems all evolved from the simple nervous system of a common ancestor. To understand these nervous systems, we need to know how they vary and how this variation emerged in evolution. In the first edition of this important reference work, over 100 distinguished neuroscientists assembled the current state-of-the-art knowledge on how nervous systems have evolved throughout the animal kingdom. This second edition remains rich in detail and broad in scope, outlining the changes in brain and nervous system organization that occurred from the first invertebrates and vertebrates, to present day fishes, reptiles, birds, mammals, and especially primates, including humans. The book also includes wholly new content, fully updating the chapters in the previous edition and offering brand new content on current developments in the field. Each of the volumes has been carefully restructured to offer expanded coverage of non-mammalian taxa, mammals, primates, and the human nervous system. The basic principles of brain evolution are discussed, as are mechanisms of change. The reader can select from chapters on highly specific topics or those that provide an overview of current thinking and approaches, making this an indispensable work for students and researchers alike.

The last 20 years of research have been marked by exceptional progress in understanding the organization and functions of the primate visual system. This understanding has been based on the wide application of traditional and newly emerging methods for identifying the functionally significant subdivisions of the system, their interconnections, the response properties of their neurons, and the population responses to stimulus events.

While primates vary greatly in morphology and behavioral adaptations, all primates share certain features of the visual system. Although there are several books on vision in the market, until now no book has provided a comprehensive overview of the primate visual system. This book synthesizes the current knowledge on the anatomical and functional organization of the primate visual system and proposes new directions for research. Contributed by a multidisciplinary group of leading researchers, chapters consider a range of topics concerning various primates, including humans, and cover processing from the eye to neural codes for action, and from basic perception to memory.

Over the last twenty-five years, there has been an extensive effort, still growing for that matter, to explore and understand the organization of extrastriate cor tex in primates. We now recognize that most of caudal neocortex is visual in some sense and that this large visual region includes many distinct areas. Some of these areas have been well defined, and connections, neural properties, and the functional consequences of deactivations have been studied. More recently, non invasive imaging of cortical activity patterns during visual tasks has led to an expanding stream of papers on extrastriate visual cortex of humans, and results have been related to theories of visual cortex organization that have emerged from research on monkeys. Against this backdrop, the time seems ripe for a review of progress and a glance at the future. One caveat important to emphasize at the very onset is that the reader may be puzzled or confused by the use of different terminologies. Individual investi gators commonly tend to favor different terminologies, but in general some prove more advantageous than others. As discussed by Rowe and Stone (1977) as well as by others, there is an unfortunate tendency for role-indicating names to lead to fixed ideas about function, in contrast to those that are more neutral and adaptable to new findings.

Over the last twenty-five years, there has been an extensive effort, still growing for that matter, to explore and understand the organization of extrastriate cor tex in primates. We now recognize that most of caudal neocortex is visual in some sense and that this large visual region includes many distinct areas. Some of these areas have been well defined, and connections, neural properties, and the functional consequences of deactivations have been studied. More recently, non invasive imaging of cortical activity patterns during visual tasks has led to an expanding stream of papers on extrastriate visual cortex of humans, and results have been related to theories of visual cortex organization that have emerged from research on monkeys. Against this backdrop, the time seems ripe for a review of progress and a glance at the future. One caveat important to emphasize at the very onset is that the reader may be puzzled or confused by the use of different terminologies. Individual investi gators commonly tend to favor different terminologies, but in general some prove more advantageous than others. As discussed by Rowe and Stone (1977) as well as by others, there is an unfortunate tendency for role-indicating names to lead to fixed ideas about function, in contrast to those that are more neutral and adaptable to new findings."

Evolutionary Neuroscience, Second Edition, is a collection of chapters on brain evolution that combines selected topics from the recent comprehensive reference, Evolution of Nervous Systems (Elsevier, Academic Press, 2017, 9780128040423). The selected chapters cover a broad range of topics, from historical theory, to the most recent deductions from comparative studies of brains. The articles are organized in sections focused on history, concepts and theory, the evolution of brains from early vertebrates to present-day fishes, amphibians, reptiles and birds, the evolution of mammalian brains, and the evolution of primate brains, including human brains. Each chapter is written by a leader or leaders in the field. Specific topics include brain character reconstruction, principles of brain scaling, basic features of vertebrate brains, the evolution of the major sensory systems, other parts of brains, what we can learn from fossils, the origin of neocortex, and the evolution of specializations of human brains. The collection of articles will be interesting to anyone who is curious about how brains evolved from the simpler nervous systems of the first vertebrates into the many different complex forms now found in present-day vertebrates.