Book Review: Arthropod brains: evolution, functional elegance and historical significance

Abstract

This is a marvelous book, but readers – take a hard look at the title and beware. I reckon it is a subtle advertisement to attract a new generation of elite neuroanatomists and breathe life into that essential but difficult way of life. Because modern molecular techniques for phylogenetic reconstruction are in their infancy, the ‘evolution’ of the arthropod brain is still mostly 19th century intuitive guesswork but excellent for armchair discussion. The ‘functional elegance’ of dozens of related but different brains, when stained, is a powerful stimulant for the human mind but not testable experimentally. The ‘historical significance’ mentioned in the title seems to consist mainly of exceptional experts who turned up irregularly over the decades in a wide range of countries and walks of life. Only about a dozen great neuroanatomists, well scattered geographically, contributed 90% of the work. With one-track minds, against the odds, they persisted in difficult techniques as their life’s work. However, they were relatively isolated in their own time and country. Strausfeld clearly enjoyed searching out their archives and publications, and he opened up some interesting dusty cupboards.