Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases

I am a second year medical student in California. I have recently boarded the struggle bus that is neuroanatomy. I have never taken neuroanatomy prior to medical school, and to say its overwhelming is an understatement. Another note - I own the Haines Atlas(9th E), this text, FA, and Firecracker. Professional students have a limited budget and need to find the most high yield resources. This is the one. I never usually buy textbooks because they suck. This is the anti-textbook. It actually is designed to be read, in order, and it is engaging, relevant, and interesting. The pictures are bomb. It constantly checks your understanding, references other section of the text (THAT MAKE SENSE AND ARE RELEVANT), and everything is clinically relevant. Finally, a book written by a clinician for clinicians, not researchers or academics. Purchase it. Read it. See how it effortlessly owns all other texts and actually pushes you to GET neuroanatomy to HELP PATIENTS, not uselessly memorize that the trigeminal system has 4 nuclei, or that there are 5 descending motor tracts, or remember some research extraneous bullcrap that fills the volume of much of our medical textbooks. Dr. Blumenfeld, if you are listening, can you make a trip to California to school your colleagues about how to write clinically oriented organ systems based texts and teaching materials?

So comprehensive, intuitive, and simple yet complete, an incredible book for those learning neuroanathomy, amazing to learn from pretty much the start or if youre a clinician looking for quick references in your practice, it has so many amazing charts and imagen too

I love this book. In my humble opinion I’d say the second edition is possibly the gold standard for learning basic neuroanatomy right now. My Professor (who was a board certified neurologist with a PhD in cognitive neuroscience as well) handpicked this text and required my class to get it for a 400 level undergraduate class in neuroanatomy I took last year. It was honestly really hard for me but A lot of fun too I must say. My major is cell as molecular biology with a special emphasis on neuroscience. I’ve been ok with the chem, bio, and cog psy parts but I never established a solid foundation in the anatomy of the very organ I study. This book has helped me start building a real foundation and become more well rounded. All the material is very practical in the book. There is a lot of information but none of it ever gets out in left field like other larger books tend to have happened. All very useful stuff and the author is constantly making you think of ways to apply what you learn. It’s a handy reference to have once your class is over too! That’s when the real learning starts. In the end though what you get out of this book will be a direct reflection of what you put in.

I bought this book at the beginning of the term and didn't open it until I got desperate halfway through. Other than the drugs, cancer, and histology&pathology sections of the course, this book had everything. It is laid out better, it is integrated from clinical presentation, to exam, imaging, diagnosis and discussion. I read the book from cover to cover, and went from failing miserably to passing with better than class average. If you read the book as it is laid out, you will build on the concepts and it will introduce key points at relevant times. By the end, you will be able to think through the anatomy instead of trying to just remember a bunch of factoids. The imaging in the book is amazing and well explained, and the cases are real. The language is very descriptive, and the illustrations and figures are great. The cranial nerves and blood supply chapters are highlights. It shouldn't be your ONLY Neuro book, but you will use it every day even after reading it. If I ever see Dr. Blumenfeld, I'm going to hug his leg like a little child.

Studying the brain is just enough to give you an aneurysm. This book definitely makes it manageable by being very succinct and concise (although it is big enough to kill someone if thrown). With fantastic diagrams and written descriptions of the circuits, it provides an adequate academic and physiologic understanding. Where this book shines is right in the title, "Clinical Cases". You can understand the central nervous system all you want but if you get a lesion, say in the motor cortex, you'd have to track down every pathway (nevermind pathways with the cerebellum and basal ganglia) and spend probably ten minutes figuring all that mess out. To help with this they provide cases containing certain patient symptoms and histories to provide a practical picture for what I feel is the most abstract of organ systems. Not for PhD candidates. Half this book would be useless to you.

Blumenfeld in this book makes an easy path to comprehend the basics before stepping on more complex books like, Gray's Clinical Neuroanatomy. It served me as training wheels before going deep on specific themes. Something that I didn't like in the way this book was written is the fact that goes divagates a lot before concreting a concept, however it makes pretty easy to get started studying neuroanatomy. Some highlights from this book are that has great illustrations of different pathways and the way the author integrated the cases was seamless compared to other books whose cases were apart from the main text. Overall it's a great companion book since it only describes briefly the main paths and circuitries, beyond that you'll need other texts. In regards of the clinical integration it's just great.

Neuroanatomy, that is "functional" neuroanatomy is one of the more challenging courses for the pre-clinical medical student. This book helps students to make the connections and helps students to integrate preclinical science with clinical signs and symptoms in neurology. I would strongly recommend this book for preclinical coursework, clinical rotation reference and as a handbook for the PGY-1 resident in medicine who needs to refresh the links between neuroanatomy and clinical problems. This book is well illustrated and contains accurate and relevant clinical cases. Do keep in mind that this is not a quick review book but a book that can help the reader gain a large amount of neuroanatomical "ground" in a short period of time. Very readable and very nice for anyone who needs to either fill in gaps or master the subtleties of clinical problem solving.

From the introduction through the cases, this book is so well thought-out, in discussing anatomical issues through case studies drawn from life, though not specific individual patients. Appreciating it every day as I study. Hal Blumenfeld, the author, is a thoughtful, considerate writer who is aware of the whole view as well as the details. Some complain of too much detail for medical school. That's because this is probably for those planning to specialize.