Not so long introductory book into neuroscience

Post Reply New Topic

Hi there,

I got already some great hints which books to read for an introduction into neuroscience, books which are used at the university. However, most of them got at least 750 pages.

The most recommended book "Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain" by Bear, Connors et al has 1000 pages. I would order it and read it, but I am not sure, if it just contains too many details for me and my aspie brain will just miss the big pictures. Maybe this happens, maybe not.

Does anyone have a good and not so long (let's say 450 pages) introductory textbook?

thanks,
anton

I recently bought "Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience" by Mark Johnson. It was on discount at a bookshop closing down sale.

It is less than 300 pages long, and is an introductory text.

hi one-a-n,

thanks for your reply! Is it a general introduction to neuroscience, or is it limited to a subfield of it? "developmental cognitive" N. sounds like a subfield or?

greets,
anton

Well, it is about how those aspects of the brain develop which underlie cognition, including sensory perception, working memory, language, social interaction, and things like cerebral lateralisation.
So I guess it pays less attention to the "lower" areas of the brain.

I guess there is always this book: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Understanding-Brain/dp/0028643100

I find Bear et al.'s book DULL and not nearly as detailed and wonderful as everyone seems to praise it to be. I recommend Biological Psychology by James W. Kalat. It was the book used in the first neuro class I took for my neuro major in college. I learned a great deal from Kalat's book. I took a class the following year that used Bear et al., and I barely learned anything. Kalat also is fairly short and has lots of really good pictures. If you're interested in books about a specific neuropsych disorder, let me know. That's my specialty- and Kalat did a great job with that area of neuro, too. Thanks to Kalat, I came up with the hypothesis/experiment for my senior thesis the first semester of freshman year.