>>>>> On 23 Nov 1994, lee at xmission.com (lee) wrote:
lee> I am interested in gaining an outsider/amateur's background in the
lee> fundamentals of neuroscience. I have an interest in various topics,
lee> and spend time at the local medical library trying to read research
lee> papers, but I need a better basic background to understand what I
lee> read. Can anyone recommend a basic text on introductory neuroscience?
lee> I am looking for something that doesn't shy away from detail, but
lee> which doesn't doom a non-chemist / physiologist type either.
Here are my suggestions. (For reference, I'm a computer science student who
has been trying to gain an understanding of biological vision systems.)
I recommend the following as a comprehensive introduction to all areas of
neurobiology:
Principles of Neural Science, 3rd ed.
Kandel, Schwartz, & Jessell
Elsevier 1991
It's huge, beautiful and comprehensive. It's readable even by non-bio
people, but certain details (e.g. molecular biology) are not covered in as
much depth as in the following highly regarded text:
Neurobiology, 3rd ed.
Gordon Shepherd
Oxford, 1994
I found the 2nd edition of Shepherd's book somewhat more difficult to read
than the Kandel et al. text, but that may have changed in the 3rd edition.
There is also available a related book+computer program combo written by Dave
McCormick.
Finally, another good book is:
From Neuron to Brain: A Cellular and Molecular Approach to the Function
of the Nervous System, 3rd ed.
John G. Nicholls, A. Robert Martin and Bruce G. Wallace
Sinauer Associates, Inc., 1992
It's a bit tougher going than the Kandel et al. book for people without a bio
background, but still a good book. The neuroscientists that I've talked to
seem to consider the Nicholl's et al. and Shepherd books as being more exact
and correct on average, but I find that the Kandel book is more readable for
someone new to the field. In any case, in my experience, these three books
are *the* most commonly used introductions to neuroscience. You pretty much
cannot go wrong with any of these three.
--
Mike Hucka (michael.hucka at umich.edu)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
