Neuroscience

Encompasses cutting-edge neuroscience, lucid descriptions of behavior, evolutionary and developmental perspectives, and clinical applications of researchInstructors of behavioral neuroscience are faced with the challenge of how to teach the course's complex material in an accessible and relatable, yet comprehensive way for undergraduate students. For more than twenty years, Breedlove and Watson's Behavioral Neuroscience has successfully solved these problems by presenting the most current, definitive, clear, and authoritative introduction to the field. Using stellar examples of today's most exciting research, an unparalleled art program that clarifies even complex biological processes, visual summaries to remind students of the principle findings presented in each chapter, and a comprehensive suite of digital support tools - including animations with built-in assessments that help test the student's knowledge of biological and behavioral processes and neuroanatomy - Behavioral Neuroscience, Ninth Edition, remains the best resource available to teach introductory neuroscience and behavioral neuroscience courses.

Up to the 1960s, psychology was deeply under the influence of behaviourism, which focused on stimuli and responses, and regarded consideration of what may happen in the mind as unapproachable scientifically. This began to change with the devising of methods to try to tap into what was going on in the "black box" of the mind, and the development of "cognitive psychology". With the study of patients who had suffered brain damage or injury to limited parts of the brain, outlines of brain components and processes began to take shape, and by the end of the 1970s, a new science, cognitive neuroscience, was born. But it was with the development of ways of accessing activation of the working brain using imaging techniques such as PET and fMRI that cognitive neuroscience came into its own, as a science cutting across psychology and neuroscience, with strong connections to philosophy of mind. Experiments involving subjects in scanners while doing various tasks, thinking, problem solving, and remembering are shedding light on the brain processes involved. The research is exciting and new, and often makes media headlines. But there is much misunderstanding about what brain imaging tells us, and the interpretation of studies on cognition. In this Very Short Introduction Richard Passingham, a distinguished cognitive neuroscientist, gives a provocative and exciting account of the nature and scope of this relatively new field, and the techniques available to us, focusing on investigation of the human brain. He explains what brain imaging shows, pointing out common misconceptions, and gives a brief overview of the different aspects of human cognition: perceiving, attending, remembering, reasoning, deciding, and acting. Passingham concludes with a discussion of the exciting advances that may lie ahead.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This book is a conversational and accessible introduction to the brain. Beginning from basic elements of neuroscience, the acclaimed scientist Rafael Yuste guides readers through increasingly sophisticated topics.

If one asks what neuroscience is, the answer can be found in this book. Neuroscience embraces not only anatomical and physiological studies but also cell biology, computer science, and biochemistry. Equally important for neuroscientific research are other disciplines, such as psychology, psychiatry, neurology and additional recent ones, such as neuroeconomics and social neuroscience. This book comprises chapters on diverse topics in neuroscience ranging from cellular, computational, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience. Individual chapters focus on recent advances in specific areas including social neuroscience, which is a relatively new field that studies the neural basis of social interactions. Other chapters focus on technological developments such as optical tools to study the function of the brain. All chapters represent recent contributions to the rapidly developing field of neuroscience and illustrate the range of research conducted under the umbrella of the truly interdisciplinary neurosciences.