Main description:

This atlas - and its accompanying text - is the most comprehensive work on avian neuroanatomy available so far. It identifies more than 900 hundred structures (versus ca. 250 in previous avian atlases), 180 of them for the first time. It correlates avian and mammalian neuroanatomy on the basis of homologies and applies mammalian terms to homologous avian structures. This is the first atlas that represents the fundamental histogenetic domains of the vertebrate neuroaxis on the basis of sound fate-mapping and gene expression data. This results in a substantial increase in accuracy of delineations. Developmental molecular biologists will find it easier to extrapolate early neural tube patterns into mature structures. The modern trend to shift avian neuroanatomical nomenclature toward mammalian terminology by reference to postulated homologies has been expanded to the entire brain, but is not yet complete. This creates a new standard for comparative cross-reference, which can also be applied to reptilian-mammalian comparisons.

Contents:

1. Generalities, procedures and background information
2. Rationale for names applied in the atlas
3. Literature cited
4. List of abbreviations and explanations
5. Brain structures classified topographically by regions