Evolution of the Nervous System

All animals have nervous systems that mediate their behaviors, many of them species specific. Yet these all evolved from the simple nervous system of a common ancestor. To understand this phenomenon, we need to know how nervous systems vary and how this variation emerged in evolution.

In Evolution of the Nervous System, more than 100 distinguished neuroscientists have assembled, for the first time, the current state-of-the-art knowledge on how nervous systems evolved throughout the animal kingdom. This four-volume overview is rich in detail and broad in scope, and outlines the changes in brain and nervous system organization that occurred from the first vertebrates to present day fishes, reptiles, birds, mammals, and especially primates, including humans.

Basic principles of brain evolution are discussed, as well as mechanisms of change, which involved gene expression and altered the courses of embryonic development. The reader can select from chapters on highly specific topics as well as those providing an overview of current thinking and approaches.