
Ask HN: What is a good introduction to neuroscience? - wynand
I could just browse reviews on Amazon.com to find a good introductory book on neuroscience.<p>But I want something that's both good and appeals to a technical mind. Which books do you recommend?
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psyklic
I'm a computational PhD student in the field -- I think you'd most enjoy "On
Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins, an inspiring book written by a hacker himself!

If you'd like a very excellent, fascinating title on mathematics and art and
mind, try "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Hofstadter. Another fun, classical book
with more of an AI bend is "Society of Mind" by Marvin Minsky.

For more classical neuroscience, "Phantoms of the Brain" by Ramachandran,
well-known in perception research, is good. I haven't read it, but "In Search
of Memory" is supposed to be excellent by Kandel, a memory researcher
superstar. (I've found that many of the books by non-scientists about the
brain are often shallow, claim to know too much, and use the same familiar
stories over and over.) For neuroscience at a lower level (i.e. the biology of
neurons, neural networks, cells), I'm not aware of a good popular account.

I also recommend picking up a copy of Mind magazine from your bookstore! And
if you can get a copy of a Scientific American magazine special on the brain
(every few years I believe), those are usually very well written as well :-)

~~~
PieSquared
I second that. "On Intelligence" is a great book, and although I like physics
and CS more than biology, it has seriously caused me to think of pursuing a
career in neuroscience, simply because it shows how little we truly know about
ourselves.

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toddml
My undergrad neuroscience textbook was the classic "Principles Of Neural
Science" by Kandell, Schwartz, and Jessell.

[http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-
Kandel/...](http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-
Kandel/dp/0838577016)

If you're looking for something a bit more digestable, you could try
"Biological Psychology: An Introduction to Behavioral, Cognitive, and Clinical
Neuroscience", which is more appropriate for a survey level (100, 1000,
depending on your school) course.

[http://www.amazon.com/Biological-Psychology-Introduction-
Beh...](http://www.amazon.com/Biological-Psychology-Introduction-Behavioral-
Neuroscience/dp/0878937056/)

~~~
robg
Upvote for Kandell, not BioPsych. The latter just emphasizes the wrong things
and too broadly.

~~~
jackchristopher
What about MITECS? [1] Is it outdated?

Eliezer Yudkowsky recommended it[2]. But I'm not sure if he still would.

I know you work at MIT, what do you use?

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/MIT-Encyclopedia-Cognitive-Sciences-
MI...](http://www.amazon.com/MIT-Encyclopedia-Cognitive-Sciences-
MITECS/dp/0262731444)

[2] <http://sl4.org/wiki/MITECS>

~~~
robg
That's just a reference volume. It's fine for what it is, but really as a
launching off point for specific topics. And reading it cover to cover would
get old, fast.

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ljlolel
I worked at a neuroscience lab for a bit. I was focusing on EEG, the signals,
oscillations, and emergent patterns in the brain. For this, they highly
recommended I read Buzsaki's Rhythms of the Brain:
[http://www.amazon.com/Rhythms-Brain-Gyorgy-
Buzsaki/dp/019530...](http://www.amazon.com/Rhythms-Brain-Gyorgy-
Buzsaki/dp/0195301064) .

------
robg
Could you be more specific? Are you looking for a populist read, a textbook,
or an anthology of review articles? Straight up neuroscience is usually lower-
level or a more cognitive/psychology high-level slant too? Research oriented
or general principles or abstract ideas?

Your purposes might also help. There's been good work done on Bayes and
datamining and I think some has made it into a book format.

~~~
wynand
I need a textbook - I'm looking for something that would be given to first
year Neuroscience students. I would prefer something low-level, but it would
be nice if the book ties high-level concepts to the low-level concepts.

I've wanted to do a Ph.D. for some time, but neither pure CS nor pure Maths (I
have a masters in the latter) excites me anymore. Neuroscience interests me,
but I want to make sure that I'm not deluding myself; therefore I'd like to
work through a proper introductory text before making the next move.

EDIT: Listened to my inner grammar Nazi and fixed capitalization & sentences.

~~~
robg
Okay, that helps, thanks.

For neuroscience first-year grad students, the gold standard is:

[http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-
Kandel/...](http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Neural-Science-Eric-
Kandel/dp/0838577016)

The fourth edition does a good job at higher-level stuff. But be forewarned:
It is biology intensive.

For less biology and more cognitive neuroscience, you can try:

[http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Neuroscience-Second-
Michael-...](http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Neuroscience-Second-Michael-
Gazzaniga/dp/0393977773)

or

[http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Neuroscience-
Neuropsychology...](http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Neuroscience-
Neuropsychology-Student-
Text/dp/0618122109/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225647507&sr=1-1)

I used the Gazzaniga when I taught Intro to Cognitive Neuroscience even as I
wasn't super impressed (which is a common complaint - tolerance, not true
acceptance). I know some folks like the Banich book instead.

If, with your Math background, you're interested in neural computation and
modeling there are also some good books along those lines. Just let me know
and I'll hunt down the links.

~~~
wynand
Thanks robg & toddml, I was particularly interested in Principles of Neural
Science and it's good to see both of you endorsing it.

I've already started teaching myself some first year biology (from a borrowed
textbook), so I'm going for Principles.

~~~
robg
Happy to help. Focus on ions and channels if you're interested in neuron
functions. That's a typical hangup for those new to biology. Some knowledge of
the vascular system also helps. Otherwise, it mostly comes down to classifying
cell types then brain and body regions.

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nonrecursive
Mapping the Mind is a fun book. It probably doesn't serve as an introduction
to neuroscience, but it has a lot interesting, useful information.

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wynand
Thank you all for your excellent answers.

I just bought Principles of Neural Science (it's pretty damn expensive in
South Africa), but I'll look at almost everything else mentioned here.

HN is awesome.

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markessien
If you want to develop new ideas, do so before you read many books, otherwise
your ideas will never break out of the orthodoxy.

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aswanson
Robg, are you out there?

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robg
You called? :)

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aswanson
Seems like you would have the best answer for this one, mate. Have at it.

~~~
robg
As you can see in my reply, I wish there was a simple answer. But I'm afraid
the field is so young there really isn't a great general purpose read. The
more popular ones leave me wanting. The more research oriented ones are a
slog. The problem is, I think, that the field is so young relative to
something like physics so the general themes are hard to discern for everyone
involved - generalists and specialists - to relay out to a wide audience.

