neuroscience and neurobiology books

	The Hippocampus Book (Oxford Neuroscience Series)
	By: Per Andersen, Richard Morris, David Amaral, Tim Bliss, John O'Keefe ISBN: 0195100271 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Release Date: 02 November, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 295017	Readers who are interested in this book, might want to look over an article published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, entitled: <br />"Hippocampal activation in patients with mild cognitive impairment is necessary for successful memory encoding" by T T Kircher et al., <br />JNNP, 2007;78:812-818. <br />QUOTE (CONCLUSION) "These results suggest that in patients with MCI, an increase in MTL activation is necessary for successful memory encoding. Hippocampal activation may help to link newly learned information to items already stored in memory. Increased activation in MTL regions in MCI may reflect a compensatory response to the beginning of AD pathology". <br />[MCI = mild cognitive impairment; MTL = medial temporal lobe]. I have been interested in the hippocampus - and indeed the whole limbic system - for many years and this is a superb review of our current knowledge about this essential region of the brain. <br /> <br />I was thinking that people who might be interested in this magnum opus will not need to be told what the hippocampus is. But for those of us who like to pick up things by browsing reviews, let me explain. It is a small part of the brain in the deep parts of the temporal lobes. It is named hippocampus because it is thought to resemble a seahorse. Although German pathologists were convinced that it looked more like a silk worm, so for years that's what the Germans called it. <br /> <br />It is primarily involved in the formation of new memories and in navigation. But despite its extreme importance it is easily damaged by hypoglycemia, anoxia or an array of toxins, particularly alcohol. It is also one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage in Alzheimer's disease. Therefore the hippocampus has become one of the most widely studies regions in the brain, with almost 78,000 research papers at last count. Yet it is many years since there we last had a single comprehensive source of information on it. <br /> <br />It says in the preface that this book is an "attempt to provide a reasonably comprehensive review of hippocampal research, as viewed through many eyes and collected with a wide variety of methods. <br /> <br />The book consists of over 800 large pages and there are sixteen chapters by some of the biggest names in the field of "hippocampology." <br /> <br />1. The Hippocampal Formation, by Per Andersen, Richard Morris, David Amaral, Timothy Bliss, and John O'Keefe <br />2. Historical Perspective: Proposed Functions, Biological Characteristics, and Neurobiological Models of the Hippocampus, by Per Andersen, Richard Morris, David Amaral, Timothy Bliss, and John O'Keefe <br />3. Hippocampal Neuroanatomy, by David Amaral and Pierre Lavenex <br />4. Morphological Development of the Hippocampus, by Michael Frotscher and Laszlo Seress <br />5. Structural and Functional Properties of Hippocampal Neurons, by Nelson Spruston and Chris McBain <br />6. Synaptic Function, by Dimitri M. Kullmann <br />7. Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Function in the Hippocampus: Neurotransmitter Exocytosis, Glutamatergic, GABAergic and Cholinergic Transmission, by Pavel Osten, William Wisden, and Rolf Sprengel <br />8. Local Circuits, by Eberhard Buhl and Miles Whittington <br />9. Structural Plasticity, by Elizabeth Gould <br />10. Synaptic Plasticity in the Hippocampus, by Timothy Bliss, Graham Collingridge, and Richard Morris <br />11. Hippocampal Neurophysiology in the Behaving Animal, by John O'Keefe <br />12. Functional Roll of the Human Hippocampus, by Craig Stark <br />13. Theories of Hippocampal Function, by Richard Morris <br />14. Computational Models of the Spatial and Mnemonic Functions of the Hippocampus, by Neil Burgess <br />15. Stress and the Hippocampus, by Richard Morris <br />16. The Hippocampus and Human Disease, by Matthew Walker, Dennis Chan, and Maria Thom <br /> <br />This is the best book on the hippocampus that I know of in any of the major European languages. The editors acknowledge the two problems with the book. First the literature is enormous and growing day by day. Indeed, between the time that the book went to the printers and this review, almost 5,000 more papers have come out. Second the breadth of the field constantly expands, as new technologies and methods are applied to understanding it. So the authors and not only neuroscientists but also range from mathematicians to clinicians. <br /> <br />This is the "go to" book for anyone wanting to gain an understanding of this crucial region of the brain, and who needs to get their bearings before diving into that fast flowing river of new papers.
	Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience
	By: Ginette Paris ISBN: 0415437776 Publisher: Routledge Release Date: 25 July, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 42443	I have already recommended this book to two people, neither is a <br />therapist or a depth psychologist. I didn't want to put the book down <br />once I began reading. The entry into the book and the experience of the <br />Underworld is riveting. It never occurred to me that <br />one would be so completely conscious when the body is so <br />traumatized. Dr. Paris' writing about this journey takes you <br />right along with her. There is mystery surrounding the loving care <br />she receives from a Mexican woman attending her seriously damaged body, <br />and who cares even more for her soul. And there is the miracle of healing <br />that emerges from the deep love between the newly fragile mother and the strong <br />daughter who takes charge. This story of a serious physical accident and its unlikely <br />outcome opens the door to what cannot be touched by neuroscience. <br /> <br />This is a wonderful book. It broadens our understanding of the ways in <br />which the archetypal psychological perspective can benefit us both individually, <br />and as participants in society. Dr. Paris' brilliance as an archetypal <br />psychologist is plainly visible. The pages are filled with wisdom and insight, <br />very creatively expressed. I highly recommend this book. As a person with nearly 20 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical industry (working in Neuroscience) and developing interests in depth-psychology, I was intrigued by the title of Ginette Paris' work: The Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience. Her book, however, contained very little on "Neuroscience." It did however, contain a great deal on a variety of topics relative to depth psychology. Paris asks an important question; what is the future of depth psychology given the takeover from neuroscience and pharmacology? She answers that question by stepping back from the medical and psychodynamic models to engage the subject mater at an archetypal level relayed through her own personal and traumatic confrontation with death, the unconscious, and a miraculous recovery. Her experience is supported by a number of case histories from her practice. Paris takes a bold stance, stating that depth psychology is not to be lumped in with the sciences. While the field of depth psychology was discovered by scientists, taking a scientific approach, depth psychology is not a science. Thank You Ginette! Depth psychology is not a science because its subject matter, the psyche, is not amenable to reduction; psyche is not reproducible, verifiable, or willing to be contained, defined or restricted at any level. The field of depth psychology is closer to that of the humanities, where key to working with psyche is an ever evolving dynamic imagination. In reality depth psychology fits neither in the sciences or the humanities; it is In-Between, just as its fundamental intrinsic nature is In-Between. <br /> <br />While I enjoyed all of Paris' book, I found her last chapter entitled "Joy: The Antidote to Anxiety" the most important for our society. Paris draws an important distinction between "fear" and "anxiety." While "fear" has an object, "anxiety" does not; the object of our anxiety is "hidden." Our society is a society suffering from anxiety (I would call it chronic, low-grade stress). Regardless of the terminology, anxiety shuts a person down and, I believe, suppresses the immune system resulting in an entire host of medical conditions that I as a neuroscientist have worked to develop drugs for (e.g., anxiety and depression). The role of anxiety in other disease states (e.g., cancer, heart disease, obesity, etc.), for which neuroscience does not concern itself, should not be overlooked. While anxiety shuts a person down and suppresses the immune system, fear calls for action (and, I believe, stimulates the immune system), flight or fight being the two basic instincts of survival. A millennia of evolution has provided our species with mechanisms for dealing with fear. We, however, do not seem to have developed an evolutionary response to anxiety. Paris addresses the problem of anxiety from the position of depth psychology, stating that, "anxiety comes with the loss of images." Paris tells us that, in our culture, we have replaced images with concepts and fear with anxiety. Our culture has worked very hard to free itself of oppressive mythologies, but unfortunately has distanced itself from the imagination that created those mythologies. The loss of imagination, necessary for the creation of vital invigorating mythologies (both collective and personal) is trauma for the psyche and disease for the body. Paris points out that it takes a healthy imagination--an artistic compromise--to balance the requirements of the ego with the orientation of the Self. Paris reminds us that this balancing (i.e., Individuation) is similar to what the Greeks would have called the lifelong quest for harmony. <br /> <br />On a more personal note, I found, Paris' work as a valuable guide on my own journey of self-discovery. Of particular value, were the weaving of her own personal account and those of her clients into her discussion on the archetype of the Mother and the archetype of the Father. I feel that I would have saved a great deal of time (and money) had I had this information available to me during my own therapeutic process. I am not saying this book is or should be a replacement for "therapy." It is, however, a valuable aid in the therapeutic process and I recommend Ginette Paris' book to anyone on their inner journey of discovery. <br /> Dr. Paris boldly expresses her intimate perceptions of not only her inner process, but of the intellectual milieu of her profession. The depth and width of her education are clearly evident, but what spoke to me most profoundly was her courage in her own voice. I experienced this book as a proclamation that has been brewing her entire career, and finally became unleashed following her own confrontation with death. Thankfully, that confrontation did not end in demise, but resulted in renewal and a sense of empowerment that no doubt will benefit her relationships and scholarly endeavors. I highly recommend this treatise for those interested in the field of inner work, and especially to those hungry to hear a strong woman accessibly speak her truth.
	Emotional Intelligence in Couples Therapy: Advances in Neurobiology and the Science of Intimate Relationships
	By: Brent J. Atkinson ISBN: 039370386X Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Release Date: 08 October, 2005 Bioscience book rank: 152621	Atkinson's book is easy to read and understand. The inclusion of biological/physiological rewiring of emotions is an interesting aspect that deserves attention in couples therapy. Atkinson includes several appendices that provide lots of information regarding his approach to couples therapy and a very clear outline for what happens in his model. The book is fairly repetitive. While it makes it easy to understand, it does become a little cumbersome. This book is an incrediable tool for any clinicial doing relational work. In fact, it's great for anyone involved in a serious relationship. It explains, in a clear manner, the biological reasons for emotional reactions and a step by step method to change established patterns of negative interactions. Atkinson's theory provides research and factual information to intirgue a logical thinker as well as someone more driven by feelings and emotions. As a marriage and family therapist, and someone in a long term relationship, I find this book extermely helpful and I give it my highest recommendation.
	Dynamical Systems in Neuroscience: The Geometry of Excitability and Bursting (Computational Neuroscience)
	By: Eugene M. Izhikevich ISBN: 0262090430 Publisher: The MIT Press Release Date: 01 November, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 199460	This book encapsulates in a single text a large body of knowledge by the author and others over the past two decades on the use of geometrical techniques to both classify and study a large range of single neuron models. While much of this material is known to "experts" in the field, the value of this text is i1) teaching this dynamical systems perspective on single neuron dynamics to generations of new students and 2) educating non-mathematicians into both the utility and use of these theories. Many other texts and papers on this topic leave non-mathematicians "in the dust" shortly after the introduction, but Eugene's excellent use of figures to explain concepts geometrically as well as mathematically enables a PhD student in engineering or quantitative biology to fully appreciate what is going on, not to mention seasoned experimentalists. The goal of Izhikevich's book is to study "the relationship between electrophysiology, bifurcations, and computational properties of neurons." The book also introduces the fundamental concepts of nonlinear dynamical system such as (1) equilibrium, (2) stability, (3) limit cycle attractor, and (4) bifurcations. Actually, it is a good introductory book on applying nonlinear dynamical system on scientific research. The primary subject of the book is the spiking (excitability and bursting) of neurons. By utilizing graphs or phase portraits to demonstrate the mechanism of the spiking generation of neurons, the author makes the readers understand both the spiking mechanism and the concepts of nonlinear dynamical system with ease.
	USMLE Road Map: Neuroscience (LANGE Basic Science)
	By: James S White ISBN: 0071422870 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Medical Release Date: 12 March, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 116286	Neuro was not my best subject in first year. This is a great review and helped me understand a few key concepts that I didn't learn during first year. If you spend half a day skimming through this book reading the blue boxes and LOOKING AT THE DRAWINGS you will be well prepared for the questions on the exam. I bought this book after reading a bunch of reviews on it. Just recently finished reading it to review neuro. I feel like I finally understand what they were trying to teach us last year. <br />I give it 4 stars only because it's kind of long and dense with text. The wording is pretty technical and sometimes you have to think really hard about what they're saying. <br />The clinical correlations are good. All you need to know about that particular tract/system/whatever is all in once place. <br />I would recommend this for anyone who needs a good neuro refresher. <br /> As a first year medical student I believe Dr. White to be one of the best professors I have ever had. This book is clear and to the point. I highly recommend it.
	The Cognitive Neurosciences III: Third Edition (Bradford Books)
	By: Michael S. Gazzaniga ISBN: 0262072548 Publisher: The MIT Press Release Date: 01 November, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 304166	Prof Gallese estuvo en Tenerife, y conocía bien su trabajo gracias al compendium de Gazzaniga. Es una buena compilación, al día. Michael Gazzaniga has edited a magisterial volume, "The Cognitive Neurosciences III," on the relationship between the human brain and cognition. This monumental 1300 page volume covers a large territory. <br /> <br />The table of contents lays out the ambitious agenda in its listing of sections in this book: evolution and development, plasticity, sensory systems, motor systems, attention, memory, language, higher cognitive functions, emotion and social neuroscience, consciousness, and directions for future research. <br /> <br />The various chapter authors lay out what we know about the brain and how it affects our thinking. This is the third edition of this enterprise, and each new edition provides us with the knowledge of what advances in the neurosciences are telling us. <br /> <br />For me, some of the most important elements of this book are what we are learning about what makes us uniquely human, whether the neurological bases of mathematical thinking, the science of consciousness, the neurological bases of language, the brain's construction of memory processes, or the nature of attention. <br /> <br />This is not a book for the faint of heart in terms of the sciences. It is written for brain scientists and allied academics. Many potential readers will be put off by its rigorous, scientific style and its stunning price tag. But for those readers who want to know what current research tells us about the brain and how is affects human thinking, this is a book that cannot be ignored. <br /> It's taken me two years off and on of steadily plugging away at this, but I've finally finished reading all the articles in this massive book. It contains all new articles, as did the first two "editions" which are really works in their own right, but is similarly structured. The work contains elaborated proceedings of what must have been one heck of a three week meeting in June 2003 of the invited expert contributors. This volume contains 94 review articles, each 10-20 pages in length, divided into 11 sections, with each section introduced by a leading researcher. Sections include evolution and development, plasticity, sensory and motor systems, attention, memory, language, higher cognitive functions, emotion and social neuroscience, consciousness, and a concluding section of a potpourri of perspectives and new directions. There is an extensive color section of 82 plates; I expect in future editions they will be integrated into the text instead of having black and white versions that refer to them. Each article contains remarkable work and for the most part I should think it will be accessible to advanced undergraduate (with at least one neuroscience course under their belt) and graduate students. To take just one example, an article I saved until towards the end because I didn't think would be especially interesting to me turned out to be fascinating--Haxby et al, "Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Face and Object Representation in the Human Brain." Here they used fMRI to study what brain regions are involved, but instead of stopping, as so many studies of this type do, at saying that e.g. the fusiform gyrus is active in representations of faces, they also analyze the contributions of other brain areas that are submaximally activated when faces are viewed. It turns out that these areas are quite important, and that the combinatorial pattern of which brain regions are activated, even if submaximally, provides important information. The article gives a glimpse of how the brain might represent information more generally. <br /> All in all, this book, like its predecessors, is essential reading for anybody interested in the explosively expanding field of cognitive neurosciences.
	The Brain and the Inner World: An Introduction to the Neuroscience of Subjective Experience
	By: Mark Solms, Oliver Turnbull ISBN: 1590510178 Publisher: Other Press (NY) Release Date: June, 2003 Bioscience book rank: 110881	As electrical engineer I have always been very much interested in the duality problem of wave-particle which I think I solved in 1991, when I realized that energy is the underlying substance, which we cannot perceive directly and that can manifest itself as a wave or as particle. When I found this excellent, easy to read book, by Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull, it was not a surprise for me what is written in its second chapter: <br /> <br />Dual-aspect monism accepts that we are made of only one type of stuff(that is why is a monism position), but it also suggest that this stuff is perceived in two different ways(hence dual-aspect monism) <br /> <br />It seems that perception, or a higher perception, is the clue to a better understanding of the mind-body problem, which should be near to the buddhist concept of bare attention, as described by Nyanaponika Thera, in his book the Heart of Buddhist Meditation, but that attention attends just to bare facts of perception presented either through the 5 physical senses or through, not the mind, but the 5 additional inner senses of the Higher Mind, which would include the 5 outer and 5 inner senses, but this is just a working hypothesis for a science that has started to understand the inner world of the brain. <br /> <br />My real congratulations to the Authors!!! <br /> i thought solms was a bad guy -- hobson in his dream literature kind of racks him over the coals and his real target of course is freud. being an old-style humanities liberal the discontent of civilization kind of person, i was half ashamed of my past, and have been studiously reading the Right stuff to meet hobson's criteria, and lo and behold, solms is not at all a bad guy. i think he's one of the best writers on current neuroscience. a lot of what he has done here i read first in affective neuroscience, but i had a hard time putting the pieces in place although i understood the pieces themselves reasonably ok. i do computer science, so i'm not intimated by complex systems, even ones with multiple inscrutable names for the same thing -- after all, i helped invent c++. but solms understands to my understanding how it all fits together, and i would not have probably reached that level of integration, if ever, on my own, for a number of years. for that, i am truly in his debt. i mean, i don't think these people write these books just for money. they are in some bizarre way in my opinion giving their best for civilization and civility. to me, in the shadow of the human slaughter going on, this material is crucial to a discussion of any national policy. if we don't understand why we do the awful things we are capable of, as well as the good things, how can we ever hope to tilt the balance. what solms has done is given modern neuroscience a story that someone like myself can understand -- for me, i can appreciate his binding freud to neuroscience, with hardly a flinch. i need to understand as a person what it means to be a sexual person, to be a parent, to be a child -- solms grounds my understanding in both neuro-science and the world i narrate to myself to understand adversity. i bought a copy for my 16 year old daughter. i don't know if she will read it, but that's how important a contribution to understanding this book is -- but one should never end a sentence with "is" -- so, i tacked this on for a better form :-) The subtitle of this book is "An introduction to the neuroscience of subjective experience" and as such, it is one of the finest books of its kind. Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull [henceforth, MS & OT] have come through with a very accessible introductory text aimed at non-specialists (the text can also serve as a useful review to slightly more experienced students). In the span of ten, information rich chapters, MS & OT manage to give an overview of everything from the very basics of neuroanatomy, neurochemistry and neurophysiology to such issues as the neural bases of emotion, consciousness, memory, dreams and hallucinatory states and more. Some space is also devoted to the elementary philosophy of mind issues. For example, after discussing Chalmers' "hard problem" of consciousness and surveying the variety of proposed stances on the problem of consciousness, they explore at some length their own position (dual-aspect monism). This view holds that there is only one kind of stuff (thus, it is a monist position) but that there are two different ways of accessing/experiencing the underlying `psychic apparatus' - it can be introspectively accessed (as mind) and/or it can be observed from a third-person perspective and objectively studied by science (as brain tissue). Perhaps, similar to the way in which physicists have come to accept that it is equally plausible to speak of light as a wave AND a particle, those in the field may come to view mind/brain as just two sides of the same coin - the seeming dissonance between subjectivity and matter may simply be an incidental artifact of our perceptual systems. <br /> <br />The dual-aspect monist position becomes important to the rest of the book as MS & OT make the case that the underlying `psychic apparatus' can and should be studied both from a mind and a brain perspective. In this regard, MS & OT agree with Kandel (the Nobel prize winning neuroscientist) that in many ways psychoanalysis, since having emerged as a discipline in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, continues to provide a remarkably comprehensive theory of mind and that mutual benefits could accrue from fostering cross-dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience (Freud's abandoned "Project"). According to the authors, it is inconceivable that two separate disciplines should be studying the same underlying thing (the `psychic apparatus') while remaining completely isolated from each other. MS & OT take up the challenge of merging the two and in the book they show how some of the neuroscience data can be smoothly integrated with psychoanalytic theory. MS who was trained both as a neuropsychologist and a psychoanalyst in particular has been a key figure in forming an international neuro-psychoanalysis society - its board of editors is populated by key figures from neuroscience (Kandel, Libet, Llinas, LeDoux, Damasio, to name just a few) and psychoanalysis. Of course, it is to be expected that this endeavor has generated controversy as well, more so in some circles than others, but it is up to the reader to judge the relative strength of the argument made by MS&OT. <br /> <br />The work of different researchers is spotlighted in the book including that of Damasio, Panksepp, LeDoux, Hobson, and Solms' own research on the neuropsychology of dreaming. MS&OT have the chance to focus on some of the newest neuroscientific discoveries such as the topic of mirror neurons and the potential neurological bases underlying psychiatric treatment (both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic). This is a great introductory book; it gives a comprehensive and reasonable overview of the relevant issues in the field.
	Freedom and Neurobiology: Reflections on Free Will, Language, and Political Power (Columbia Themes in Philosophy)
	By: John Searle ISBN: 0231137524 Publisher: Columbia University Press Release Date: 17 November, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 312364	This book is a dense and yet fast read. The final chapter deserves to be read several times. <br /> <br />Chapter one is Searle trying to give a brief encapsulation of the themes that he has treated elsewhere. Heavy going, but surprisingly rapid reading. <br /> <br />In chapter two, Searle wrestles with the implications of neurobiology for "free will." He finds that he cannot decisively state whether humans have free will or not. Assuming that consciousness is a function of the physical brain, composed of neurons, glial cells, etc, he argues that either there is no free will (even though we must believe there is) and everything we do is deterministic, or else free will comes via the randomness of quantum fluctuations. <br /> <br />This dichotomy was so bad that I seriously entertained the thought of writing the author and demanding my money back. I finished this chapter before bed and then awoke around 0500 in an absolute panic attack because I could not readily refute Searle. I do not see randomly dictated behavior as any better than predetermined behavior. Neither one is freedom. <br /> <br />As I wrestled with my panic, I realized that the horror of either of Searle's two options comes from having a "Me" with intent and desire, who is then denied the ability to realize any intent or desire by fate or by random chance. <br /> <br />I think that the drastically self-referential, non-linear nature of the brain makes an independent sense of "Me" possible w/o invoking some mystical split between mind and brain. I do not see that it is impossible for this sense of "Me" to develop its own preferences in a way that is neither random nor predetermined. <br /> <br />The final chapter truly made the book worthwhile. It consists of a brief essay on political power. Searle compares deontic power and status functions with the brute power imposed by force. He finds the notion of political power completely foreign to the physicist's notions of power. My hope was that this book was a good philosopher, musing seriously over a host of recent results on how the mind is constituted and works from fMRI and other neurobiology studies. Instead I got a good philosopher doing vague musings without any basis in fact, continuing 16th century metaphysical musings as he wishes, without being constrained by fact, truth, how brains work, what social psych knows about social modules, mirror neurons, consciousness bundlings, and everything else exciting in what we know now about us-ness. <br /> <br />One star is too much. This book is cleverly mis-named by its editors to sell. Anyone interested in the name the book now actually has will be severely, severely disappointed in the book, at any price, however cheap. This book is a waste of space and increasingly it looks like its author is something similar. These essays are a low-voltage rehash of ideas set out in Searle's earlier books, where his one-mind concept of consciousness is set out much more lucidly. His musings on Free Will lack focus and clarity and the author ends up without taking a clear position on a topic where his brilliant philosophical studies should have allowed him to enlighten his readers.
	Molecular Basis of Neuropharmacology: A Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience
	By: Eric J. Nestler, Steven E. Hyman, Robert C. Malenka ISBN: 0838563791 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Medical Release Date: 28 March, 2001 Bioscience book rank: 426600	This book is very well written and interesting, discussing neuropharmocology from molecular, cellular, and biochemical bases as well as physiologically and socially. Great review of neuroscience from the pharmacological viewpoint. Thorough, systematic explanations of neurotransmitter systems up to higher brain functions. Highlights drugs that affect each system in the text. Begins with basic review of pharmacology and neuroscience for those who don't have solid footing there. Language is clear and easy to read, contains main points on first page of each chapter and selected reading at the end. Anyone who wants an understanding of how the brain works at the molecular level should read this excellent, succinct text. I recommend it to anesthesiologists in particular since we parctice in brain-neuropharmacology daily.
	Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code (Computational Neuroscience)
	By: Fred Rieke, David Warland, Rob de Ruyter van Steveninck, William Bialek ISBN: 0262681080 Publisher: The MIT Press Release Date: 25 June, 1999 Bioscience book rank: 305577	A decade ago, computational neuroscientists and some neurophysiologists were twittering with excitement about information theory. Finally, a tool that could decode the "noise" observed when we record neuronal spike signals! <br /> <br />These days...information theory has become part of the standard toolkit in a few types of experiments. But we're not much closer to understanding the neural code(s) than when this book was written. Nevertheless, Bialek's group of mostly physicists turned neuroscientists continue to develop information theoretic tools. Perhaps they'll come up with one that's not just another hammer. <br /> <br />The authors of Spikes may still turn out to have been ahead of their time (just like Barlow, MacKay and McCulloch, who originally applied information theory to neurons). Or their research program may turn out to have been a detour, a misguided attempt to find a particular physical universal in evolutionarily contingent biological systems. <br /> <br />If you're interested in theoretical neuroscience, I would definitely recommend Dayan and Abbott's textbook. van Hemmen and Sejnowski's "23 Problems in Systems Neuroscience" also has good bits. If you really want to read about information theory, David MacKay's new book is available on the web. What would it mean to understand how a neuron works? Traditionally this questions has been addressed by attempting to solve the encoding problem-that is, given a sample stimulus input, construct a model neuron that predicts the temporal pattern of spikes resulting from observing that stimulus. While much progress has been made on this front (for example, using Weiner-Volterra expansion methods), the remarkable contribution of this book is to turn the question on its head. Instead of asking how a neuron encodes information about the world into discrete spikes, this book instead takes the organism's point of view. Namely, animals do not "observe" the world, but only the spike trains that encode sensory stimuli, and they must be capable of producing successful behavior on the basis of these discrete spikes. <br /> <br />The question for the researcher becomes, given a sample spike train, what do we know about the environmental situation that resulted in this spike train? This question, the decoding problem, is the problem that biological organisms must solve. Perhaps even more remarkably, when posed as a decoding problem, many of the nonlinearities of the neural response disappear, and we are left with a simple linear filtering problem. <br /> <br />`Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code' presents numerous recent results on this front, drawing on behavioral and neurological data as diverse as bat echo location, moth evasion tactics, vertebrate and invertebrate vision, and the incredible French cave beetle capable of reliably detecting temperature changes as small as 1/1000 of a degree. To interpret these results, the authors rely on a variety of mathematical techniques, from probability theory and information theory, to optimal filtering and kernel approaches. This book is very rigorous, and not for math-phobic readers. Understanding all of the ideas presented in this book will take work: about one-third of the book is devoted to a series of appendixes or "Mathematical asides". Finally, one of the most valuable contributions of this book is its extensive list of references for the ideas and results presented in each chapter. Rieke et al. have written a great book exploring how single neurons and populations of cells code information sensitive spikes and patterns of spikes, i.e. single action potentials, clusters, repetitive bursts, or single bursts. There are quite a few equations in the book, but the authors have written the text so well, that an advanced undergraduate or graduate student in the Neurosciences can understand it. One of my favorate sections discusses the Entropy of information, and the entropy of neural code patterns. This concept will likely shape the future of many neurophysiological investigations.