Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain

by Mark F. Bear

Acclaimed for its clear, friendly style, excellent illustrations, leading author team, and compelling theme of exploration, Exploring the Brain, 4e takes a fresh, contemporary approach to the study of neuroscience, emphasizing the biological basis of behavior. The authors’ passion for the dynamic field of neuroscience is evident on every page, engaging students and helping them master the material. In just a few years, the field of neuroscience has been transformed by exciting new technologies and an explosion of knowledge about the brain. The human genome has been sequenced, sophisticated new methods have been developed for genetic engineering, and new methods have been introduced to enable visualization and stimulation of specific types of nerve cells and connections in the brain. The new Fourth Edition has been fully updated to reflect these and other rapid advances in the field, while honoring its commitment to be student-friendly with striking new illustrations, additional animations, and an unparalleled array of online resources.

Genres: Neuroscience, Science, Psychology, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Brain, Biology

975 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1995

Reviews

[Mohamed Tashkandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a masterpiece for students beginning with neuroscience. Its way of simplifying complex concepts in a digestible writing without losing its powerful context is entirely captivating. It also makes it really entertaining in how it links basic science with the clinical aspect by tracking it down from discovery to practice.

Even though the first 6 chapters may seem familiar and’ve been already covered in physiology courses, it has its own taste and beauty and makes reading it feel like the first time.

For anyone who has interest in neuroscience, this book is the ideal way to start with. It’s fairly comprehensive in its topics. However, I don’t recommend it for postgraduate studies because it, to a limited extent, lacks some basic and crucial details.

Overall, the book is completely amazing and I just can’t understand how could this book be ever rated by 1 or 2 stars!

There’s a newer edition by the way.

[Pepijn van Duijn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Het enige wat ik heb geleerd is dat ik f*cking dom ben

[آبگینه · Rating 5 out of 5]

زبان ساده و جذاب، مناسب برای شروع

[Aya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great structure and visuals. Would be great to get a more updated edition much has changed since then.

[Liesbeth Godefroid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE BEAR!!!!!! Felt so connected with this book, like someone close to me was explaining it all and i was eating it up

[andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

really good at explaining the concepts and i loooove the analogies they really help

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is the definitive textbook for laypeople or human science students (psychology) to begin seriously studying neuroscience. For systems neuroscience students, I'd advise Larry Squire's Fundamental Neuroscience for Systems Neuroscience over this, as it has more chapters dedicated to functions of the nervous system (sleep, pain etc.)

This book lacks fine detail, especially with respect to electrophysiology, computational approaches and molecular neuroscience. It is better for learning about behavioural experiments, gross neuroanatomy (regions not cell types) and fancy diagrams. That said, it is very hyped in American undergraduate neuroscience courses because I think in general neuroscience education in the USA and Canada is less focused on original research and deals more with fundamental textbook concepts than European courses ;)

[Misti Atkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I entered a Doctorate level Advanced Neuroscience class in 2013 without any previous history in Biology (beyond 1 semester of 7th grade Bio and high school Marine Biology -- oy!). Needless to say, I was in over my head and had insane amounts of catching up to do once the first week of panic attacks dwindled. :) This book brought me up to speed and kept me reasonably current with the class through clear, straightforward speech and excellent scaffolding. I barely grazed by with a B, but given the lack of history, I was elated.

[Abby Alhadeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

technically finished - read part 1 and 2 out of 4, but these are the only parts of the textbook I needed to read prior to starting the neurobiology module at university for michaelmas term.
Will return to parts 2 and 3 in the latter half of the academic year -> marking the book as unread again

[Mills College Library]

612.8 B3681n 2016

[Ante Banovac · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introductory textbook for anyone who wants to learn more about neuroscience. I have always been fascinated by the brain and what it can do. Because of this, I have read several books on the subject, but most of them focused on specific parts or functions of the brain. This book, however, encompasses all aspects of brain functionality in one place.

You will first learn about neurons and their parts, which are a special type of cell that serves as the foundational building block of the nervous system. Next, you'll explore action potentials and how neurons communicate with each other—a part of the book I found to be the most fascinating. There is so much to learn in this chapter, including topics like neurotransmitters, receptor gates, equilibrium potentials, and many more.

As you continue reading, you'll also learn about the senses, the specific parts of the brain that receive sensory inputs, how the brain controls movement, our behaviors and motivations, and how we learn and form memories. There is probably no part of our existence that is not influenced by processes in the brain. However, we are only at the beginning of our journey to fully understand its functionality. One day, perhaps, we will solve the greatest mystery of all: consciousness.

[Elijah Shervey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic exciting length cover or many fundamental Neuroscience topics. Although I hadn't thoroughly read through other textbooks for a fair comparison, I found the short stories and 'paths to discovery' to be exciting and inspiring, and they were sprinkled all throughout the textbook. That's something you don't see too often in academic textbooks. This textbook has helped me in a major decision to shift my career towards Neuroscience research.

Although, I can point out some issues that may have been fixed in the 4th edition, as I have read the 3rd edition. In the brain vasculature and mid-brain coronal/transverse section drawings, there is some confusing imagery that doesn't seem to match with its orthographic cross-section. Admittedly this would be very difficult to draw correctly, but then again, real anatomical dimorphism is less consistent than this, that's a valid excuse.

[Thisismarysaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic.
If you are majoring in neuroscience or want to switch your major to it, you must be advised on all the heavy cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology you must learn.
Now if you're a graduate student, it is hard to browse through the long list of books you're "encouraged" to learn, i recommend this book for those who come from a different background and didn't study science for their undergrad because it covers most of the things you must learn to build your background in neuroscience.
I think by reading this you won't need all the refrences in bio and biochemistry. ( you will need youtube and chatgpt to break the concepts in it for you but you won't need extra refrences)
Dont be discouraged by how big it is! Once you break it down it's really not as intimidating.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a really useful introduction to topics in neuroscience. I felt the chapters on mental illness and affective neuroscience in general were frustratingly short but I suppose that's because I have an unusual fascination with those topics. I recommend this for anyone who wants to see the very basic connections between neuronal function and behavior. It's an easy read. It took me about 3 months and I was in the middle of moving to a new continent for half a month. So if you're motivated you could do it quicker.

[Eric Tao · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good introduction to many different topics in neuroscience. It is friendly to read and well-explained. There are a couple strange sections of the book that I found strange (such as a reductive diatribe on the subject of animal rights and a short discussion about the syncing of menstrual cycles), but overall, the book is well-organized, and I found the boxes written by neuroscience experts describing how their process of discovery to be very engaging.

[✿ ~Yessenia~♥︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Neuroscience and this textbook was interesting to read but I think it needed more helpful summary of the end of the chapters or quizzes. Otherwise the book was both a good textbook and an interesting helpful book to pass my neuroscience class. It's one of the few textbooks I actually bought to own and plan to keep.

[lliah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this for both my neural systems I and neural systems II course! It’s very clear and definitely a good reference book and starting point. At times it could be dense, but I did really enjoy this book for the most part. My courses in particular were mostly lecture based and had topics not mentioned in the book at all which was sometimes frustrating, but nothing a quick search can’t fix.

[Claudio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly detailed introduction to neuroscience, providing a comprehensive explanation of the core molecular, cellular and functional areas of the brain. It's not an easy book to read for a novice in the field but surely provides insights on the wonders of our brain and could be useful as a foundation for further studies in neuroscience, psycology and human behavior.

[Sudhir Nallagangu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for even introductory readers like me who is trying to understand what goes on between ears. I am blown away by clear articulation pictures and explanation. Thanks for opening the eorld of neuroscience

Sudhir

[Idir Yacine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book still not what I was expecting/hoping for .
It's more of an academic alternative rather than a real-life hands on usage . A better analogy would be comparing it to abstract mathematcis and discrete mathematics .

[Rara]

Update : currently at page 51, skipped a few pages but that's fine .. looking for scientific insights and more on what happens inside the brain; hopefully I'll be able to find the insights im seeking within this book.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This class/textbook really sparked an interest in neuroscience for me!

[Miguel V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book of neuroscience, excellent to start studying the brain

[BVC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preferisco il Kandel, in linea generale. Entrambi ottimi per un primo accesso, ma approfondito, allo studio del sistema nervoso umano.

[Christiaan Boelens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely good entry level book on Neuroscience, covers the basics and is great to read and then go into more specialised neuro-disciplines and literature.

[Emilie Weasley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bonnes illustrations, mais beaucoup de fautes (pluriel, virgule) et trop de phrases trop longues pour rien.

[YUANXIAO]

my first book to ns

[sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rough read for school

[lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Legit explained nothing to me, but that’s probably because my teachers lectures did not follow the book at all

[Ivo Onofre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice book, nice adventure into the neuronal jungle that we are, grateful for the knowledge acquired!