title: Arthropod Brains: Evolution, Functional Elegance, and Historical Significance
author:  Nicholas James Strausfeld 
description: This is a remarkable contribution to the literature of neuroscience. Strausfeld is probably the only neuroanatomist alive who is steeped in the history of his field and who still passionately cares enough to have made what amount to pilgrimages to the home countries and laboratories of the founders of the fieldto see for himself what still remained and what could be recovered of the past masters. He recounts these adventures with a dry, wry wit and is not afraid to revise accepted versions of history and reputations. The visual presentation of the subject through spectacularly stunning images is what sets this book apart from any other I know of. Strausfeld's book is a testament to the visionary pioneers of comparative neuroanatomy and will serve future generations of neuroscientists as a touchstone for the remarkable history of the field of functional anatomy. I am confident that his book will stand as a reference for decades to come. (Ronald R. Hoy, Merksamer Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University)<br /><br />This work is unlike anything else in the current or historical literature. There are interesting reviews and compilations that take, for example, an evo-devo view of the nervous system, but nothing that speaks so directly to neuroscientists while also challenging insect systematists I am also not familiar with any work that makes crustacean neuroanatomy so accessible to insect neurobiologists (those who study crustaceans will surely feel that the author is a champion of their discipline after reading this work). (Susan E. Fahrbach, Reynolds Professor of Developmental Neuroscience, Department of Biology, Wake Forest University)
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  Section D
  INTRODUCTION
  The term limbic is almost synonymous with the term emo-
  tional brain — the parts of the brain involved with our
  emotional state. In 1937, Dr. James Papez initiated the lim-
  bic era by proposing that a number of limbic structures in
  our brain formed the anatomical substratum for emotion.
  EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
  Dr. Paul MacLean has postulated that there are in fact three
  separable “brains” that have evolved. The pre-mammalian
  (reptilian) brain has the capacity to look after the basic life
  functions and has organized ritualistic stylized patterns of
  behavior. In higher species, including mammals, forebrain
  structures have evolved that relate to the external world
  (e.g., visual input). These are adaptive, allowing for a mod-
  iﬁcation of behavior depending upon the situation.
  MacLean has suggested that the limbic system arises
  in early mammals to link these two brain functions;
  according to this scheme, the limbic system relates the
  reptilian brain, which monito