The structure of this volume is theoretically based on a trichotomy, first developed by Albert, between instrumental, fundamental and executive cerebral functions. The first are essentially related to communication and are represented by cortical activities; fundamental refers to learning, information processing and mood; and executive functions are those related to abstraction, sequencing and attentional activities. The last two are predominantly subcortically and frontally driven, respectively. Abnormalities of the cerebral structures underlying these domains are represented by signature syndromes, which form the main text of the book.
After a brief review of relevant neuroanatomy, there follows a succession of chapters dominated either by a syndrome (e.g. depression and lesion location in stroke) or by anatomy (e.g. thalamic behaviour syndromes). The chapters are variable in their comprehensibility and length, and there is much repetition between chapters, which considerably lengthens the book and reduces its reader-friendliness. Furthermore, the trichotomy introduced in the discussion is somehow lost sight of.
There is a disappointing adherence to the value of using DSM-IV in behavioural neurology, and the subtlety of mental-state changes specifically related to neurological damage is not well developed. An obvious example is in the field of epilepsy. In the chapter on the evaluation of behaviour, in which behavioural rating scales are discussed, the Bear—Fedio inventory (introduced to evaluate temporal lobe syndromes) is not listed. In the chapter on temporal lobe syndromes, one of the most specific of all neurobehavioural abnormalities, the postictal psychosis of temporal lobe epilepsy is not even mentioned. Of the five references given to support the contention that there is no link between temporal lobe epilepsy and psychosis, one is a review article and the other four support the proposition that there is a link.
These are perhaps quibbles about a book that undoubtedly contains some excellent review chapters, all well referenced, and of considerable value for those references alone. There is a wealth of important behavioural neurology within it and there is no comparable text that covers this important topic.
The book is dominated by French and American authors, and it is significant to have chapters by French behavioural neurologists. Since the time of Charcot there have been many contributions to neuropsychiatry from France, but they are often not well represented in contemporary texts. However, there is still a need for a thoughtful, comprehensive, single-authored text to bring together our knowledge of the behavioural consequences of focal brain lesions, set in a connectionist context and not dominated by DSM-IV.
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