In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin proposed that an ant’s brain, no larger than a pin’s head, must be sophisticated to accomplish all that it does. Yet today many people still find it surprising that insects and other arthropods show behaviors that are much more complex than innate reflexes. They are products of versatile brains which, in a sense, think. Fascinating in their own right, arthropods provide fundamental insights into how brains process and organize sensory information to produce learning, strategizing, cooperation, and sociality. Nicholas Strausfeld elucidates the evolution of this knowledge, beginning with nineteenth-century debates about how similar arthropod brains were to vertebrate brains. This exchange, he shows, had a profound and far-reaching impact on attitudes toward evolution and animal origins. Many renowned scientists, including Sigmund Freud, cut their professional teeth studying arthropod nervous systems. The greatest neuroanatomist of them all, Santiago Ramón y Cajal—founder of the neuron doctrine—was awed by similarities between insect and mammalian brains. Writing in a style that will appeal to a broad readership, Strausfeld weaves anatomical observations with evidence from molecular biology, neuroethology, cladistics, and the fossil record to explore the neurobiology of the largest phylum on earth—and one that is crucial to the well-being of our planet. Highly informative and richly illustrated, Arthropod Brains offers an original synthesis drawing on many fields, and a comprehensive reference that will serve biologists for years to come.

The definitive textbook and reference guide to the arthropod brain. The material is arranged logically in three sections. Section I, on evolution, includes a discussion on the presence of a fourth component, tetrocerebrum in the insect brain in addition to the three commonly recognized parts, and the evolutionary trends in the central and mushroom bodies in major arthropod groups. A section on structure and function includes detailed ultrastructural studies of the brain as well as studies of the mechanoreceptory centers, peripheral sensory coding and sensilla function, and antennal information processing. Also examines biochemical topics such as bioamines and mucosubstances, their respective roles in brain function, and various techniques of brain research.

Identified Neurons and Behavior of Arthropods presents for the larger audience the papers delivered at a symposium of the same title. I organized this symposium so that a few of the many who owe him a great scientific debt could honor Professor C. A. G. (Kees) Wiersma upon his attaining the age of 70 and retiring from the California Institute of Technology. Everyone of the participants publicly acknowledged his debt to Kees Wiersma, but in a sense there was no need to do so, because the research reported spoke for itself. Seldom in a rapidly developing branch of modem science has all of the recent progress so clearly stemmed from the pioneering work of a single figure. But in this subject, the role of identified nerve cells in determining behavior, Wiersma stood virtually alone for 30 years. He it was who first showed that indi vidual nerve cells are recognizable and functionally important and have "per sonalities" of their own.

This book reviews the advances in insect neurobiology in the last two decades and highlights the contributions of this field to our understanding of how nervous systems function in general. By concentrating largely on one insect, the locust, this book unravels the mechanisms by which a brain integrates the vast array of sensory information to generate movement and behavior. The author describes the structure and development of the insect brain, detailing the cellular properties of insect neurons and the way they are altered by neurosecretors. Insect movements are fully analyzed at the cellular level to illustrate particular features of integrative processing. Richly illustrated, this volume emphasizes how the brain of an insect can be an informative model for defining basic neural mechanisms, shared by other animals and man.

Most neurobiological research is performed on vertebrates, and it is only natural that most texts describing neuroanatomical methods refer almost exclusively to this Phylum. Nevertheless, in recent years insects have been studied intensively and are becoming even more popular in some areas of research. They have advantages over vertebrates with respect to studying genetics of neuronal development and with respect to studying many aspects of integration by uniquely identifiable nerve cells. Insect central nervous system is characterized by its compactness and the rather large number of nerve cells in a structure so small. But despite their size, parts of the insect eNS bear structural comparisons with parts of vertebrate eNS. This applies particularly to the organization of the thoracic ganglia (and spinal cord), to the insect and vertebrate visual sys tems and, possibly, to parts of the olfactory neuropils. The neurons that make up these areas in insects are often large enough to be impaled by microelectrodes and can be injected with dyes. Added to advantages of using a small eNS, into which the sensory periphery is precisely mapped, are the many aspects of insect behaviour whose components can be quan titized and which may find both structural and functional correlates within clearly defined regions of neuropil. Together, these various features make the insect eNS a rewarding object for study. This volume is the first of two that describe both classic and recent methods for neuroanatomical research on insect eNS.

Insects are ideal subjects for neurophysiological studies. This classic volume relates the activities of nerve cells to the activities of insects, something that had never been attempted when the book first appeared in 1963. In several elegant experiments, Roeder shows how stimulus and behavior are related through the nervous system.