Clinical Neuroembryology: Development and Developmental Disorders of the Human Central Nervous System

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the development of the human central nervous system (CNS) in the context of its many developmental disorders due to genetic, environmental and hypoxic/ischaemic causes. The book contains three general, introductory chapters in which an overview of the development of the human brain and spinal cord, a summary of mechanisms of development as obtained in experimental studies in various invertebrates and vertebrates, and an overview of the causes of congenital malformations are presented. The developmental disorders of the human brain and spinal cord are presented in a regional, more or less segmental way, starting with neurulation and neural tube defects, and ending with developmental disorders of the cerebral cortex. These chapters are abundantly illustrated in colour with carefully chosen clinical case studies with imaging data, and when available, postmortem verification of the developmental disorders involved.

In the third edition, more emphasis has been given to the developmental ontology based on the prosomeric approach, and fetal development. Prenatal diagnosis by ultrasound, MRI and DTI, and classifications of developmental disorders have been updated. A number of new Clinical Cases have been included. Several new co-authors participate in various chapters. 

The book is intended for advanced medical students, and all those clinicians working with children and adults with developmental disorders of the CNS. Unique to the book is the integration of data from human embryology, experimental and molecular findings in mice in particular, imaging and developmental neuropathology.

Hans J. ten Donkelaar (1946) studied Medicine at the University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), where he received his M.D. (1974) and Ph.D. (1975). In 1978, he was appointed Associate Professor of Neuroanatomy at the Department of Anatomy and Embryology of that University. His research interests are developmental and comparative aspects of motor systems, developmental disorders of the CNS and neurodegenerative diseases. With Rudolf Nieuwenhuys and Charles Nicholson he published The Central Nervous System of Vertebrates (1998, Springer) and with Anthony Lohman an anatomy and embryology textbook in Dutch, which is now in its fourth edition (BSL/Springer Media, Houten, NL, 2014). In 1998, he came to the Department of Neurology of the Radboud University Medical Centre to do research on developmental and neurodegenerative diseases. With Martin Lammens and Akira Hori he published Clinical Neuroembryology: Development and developmental disorders of the human central nervous system (2006, Springer; 2nd edition: 2014). In 2011, he published Clinical Neuroanatomy: Brain circuitry and its disorders (Springer; 2nd edition: 2020).

Martin Lammens (1956) studied Psychology and Medicine at the University of Leuven (Belgium), where he received his M.D. in 1981. He specialized in Neurology, Psychiatry, General Pathology and Neuropathology in Aachen, Leuven and Brussels. He received his Ph.D. in 1997 on developmental neuropathology. He worked as consultant pathologist and neuropathologist at the Radboud University Medical Centre and at Maastricht University Hospital, and as Guest Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Gent (Belgium). In 2012, he was appointed Head of the Department of Pathology at the University Hospital Antwerp, Belgium. Currently, he is Consultant in Neuropathology at this hospital and several other Belgian Universities, and President of EURO-CNS.

Akira Hori (1941) studied Medicine at the Nagoya City University (Japan), where he received both his M.D. and Ph.D. After training in Neurology and Psychiatry in Nagoya (1967-1971), he went to Germany to study Neuropathology in Marburg (1971-1973), came back to Japan to the Department of Neuropathology of the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, and returned to Germany, at first to the Brain Research Institute of the University Tübingen (1977-1978), then Institute of Neuropathology in Göttingen (1978-1987), further as Professor of Neuropathology at the Hanover Medical School (1987-2004). He contributed to Pathologie – Neuropathologie (in German), now in its fourth edition (2012, Springer). In 2004, he was appointed Head of the Department of Clinical Research at the Tottori Medical Centre (Japan) and in 2006, he went to the Research Institute for Longevity Medicine, Fukushimura Hospital, Toyohashi (Japan). Currently, he is Guest Professor of Neuropathology at the Hanover Medical School and at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich (Germany).