The number of students aswell as colleagues in the field who have learned neuroanatomy according to volume 3 of the color atlas has been steadily increasing. Kahle’s textbook has proved its worth. What should one do after taking on the job of carrying on with this text book, other than leaving as much as possible as it is? However, the rapid growth in our knowledge of neuroscience does not permit this. In just the last few years many new discoveries have been made that have shaped thewaywe viewthe structure and function of the nervous system. There was a need for updating and supplementing this knowledge. Hence, newsections have been added; for example, a section on modern methods of neuroanatomy, a section on neurotransmitter receptors, and an introduction to modern imaging procedures frequently used in the hospital. The Clinical Notes have been preserved and supplemented in order to provide a link to the clinical setting. The purposewas to provide the student not only with a solid knowledge of neuroanatomy but also with an important foundation of interdisciplinary neurocience. Furthermore, the student is introduced to the clinical aspects of those fields in which neuroanatomy plays an important role. I sincerely hope that the use of modern multicolor printing has made it possible to present things more clearly and in a more uniform way. Thus, sensory pathways are now always presented in blue, motor pathways in red, paraympathetic fibers in green, and sympathetic fibers in yellow.

I wish to thank first and foremost Professor Gerhard Spitzer and Stephan Spitzer who took charge of the grapic design of the color atlas and provided their enormous experience also for the present edition. I thank Professor Jürgen Hennig and his co-workers at the radiodiagnostic division of the Medical School of the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany, for their help with the new section on imaging procedures. Last but not least, I would like to thank Dr. André Diesel who took great care in screening the text for lack of clarity and who contributed significantly to the color scheme of the figures, al well as my secretary, Mrs. Regina Hummel, for her help with making the many corrections. My thanks go also to Mrs. Marianne Mauch and Dr. Jürgen Lüthje at Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, for their generous advice and their patience.