Book Review

Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation, Volume I: Neural Repair and Plasticity; Volume II: Medical Neurorehabilitation

N Engl J Med 2007; 356:535-536February 1, 2007

Article

Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation, Volume I: Neural Repair and Plasticity; Volume II: Medical Neurorehabilitation
Edited by Michael Selzer, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo Cohen, Pamela Duncan, and Fred Gage. 1440 pp. total, illustrated. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2006. $320. ISBN: 978-0-521-83639-5 (Vol. I ISBN, 978-0-521-85641-6; Vol. II ISBN, 978-0-521-85642-3.)

The discipline of neuroscience continues to expand. From early anatomy-based investigations through the cellular and molecular biology revolutions, neuroscience has stayed at the forefront and at times has even led to paradigm shifts in biology. One emerging area that moves away from reductionist biology and toward the view of the organism as a whole is neurorehabilitation. Although often considered an area that is not grounded in “hard science,” rehabilitation has been transformed over the past two decades with the integration of advances in cellular and molecular neurobiology, bioengineering, and computer science. Bringing such disparate disciplines together coherently is a challenge, and the editors and authors of this substantial two-volume textbook have risen to it with remarkable success.

Selzer and colleagues have compiled contributions from leaders in the field of neural repair and rehabilitation. Whereas each of the two volumes can stand alone, together they cover a breadth of information that is unavailable in any other single source.

The first volume concerns the biology of neural function and dysfunction. Not surprisingly, several sections discuss plasticity in the central nervous system and the molecular aspects of axonal regeneration and pathfinding. Remarkably, little space is devoted to the current excitement about neural stem cells or the use of cellular therapies in the nervous system, but the reason for this seeming oversight may be that these fields are in their infancy. The final section of this volume, which addresses the application of translational research to neural injury, is not well integrated with the rest of the volume and, disappointingly, does not address the translation of basic advances to clinical applications. The exception to this criticism is the chapter on cell therapies by Olle Lindvall and Peter Hagell. A broader perspective would have been most welcome.

The second volume, a comprehensive overview of neurorehabilitation, builds from the knowledge base of the first volume. It includes sections on technological approaches as diverse as functional mapping, functional electrical stimulation, wheelchair design, and cell transplantation. There are also discussions of symptom-specific and disease-specific rehabilitation. The logic behind this organization is clear; the first volume is directed largely at basic scientists and the second at practitioners of neurorehabilitation. Still, there is the feeling that an opportunity for synthesis has been missed.

Even so, the quality and utility of these volumes are considerable. The individual contributions in the two volumes are uniformly excellent. The editors have done a good job of bringing leaders of the different disciplines together, and the result is a book that will be a valuable resource to neurobiologists, whose work has clinical implications, as well as to clinicians who desire an update on current thinking in neural repair.

Robert H. Miller, Ph.D.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106
rhm3@case.edu