Looking for good textbooks

[Stephan Anagnostaras]

In article <Dv5DF3.G2n.0.queen at torfree.net>, bl859 at torfree.net (Kwokyin
Hui) wrote:

> CARD068 at uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu wrote:
> : Hello all,
> : I am beginning my quest for knowledge in the neurosciences.  I have a
> : Ph.D. in the Biomedical Sciences and I am looking for good books on
> : neurobiology and neurophysiology.  I need some basics and advanced
> : topics.  These could be covered in seperated books if needed.  Any help
> : or advice would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> From what I've heard, Neuroscience by Kendall is also commonly called the 
> Bible of Neuroscience by many neurologists.  It covers the basics as well as 
> going into the details - a fairly thick book.  I believe it's in its 4th 
> edition now.
> 

This depends on exactly what you're looking for. The book the poster
is referring to is Kandel, Schwartz, & Jessel; Principles of Neural
Science.  The book is extensive in many ways, but is in many ways
also too ambitious and very incomplete, particularly in areas of
higher function.  It is in many ways a medical text, so it is
poorly referenced and treats outdated theories s facts. Nonetheless,
it can provide a good overview, at least of the status-quo.  In 
the areas of sensation and motor systems it is actually
quite good. They also released a more trimmed down version of this
book last year, aside from being easier to carry it's not much
different. I should mention that the book does have outstanding illustrations,
which I've hocked many times for presentations :)
 If you are strictly interested in neurphys & neurobio, you
might want something like "From Neuron to Brain", Shepherd's Neurobiology,
or Hille's Ionic channels of excitable membranes. If you are interested
in higher function, I would recommend the a psychobiology text like
Kolb & Whishaw's Human Neuropsychology.  There are also
Neuroendocrinology texts and computational neuroscience texts, depending
on what you're interested in. Good luck, the field is vast...

-- 
STEPHAN ANAGNOSTARAS                   UCLA BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
STEPHAN at UCLA.EDU