Neuroscience For Dummies

by Frank Amthor

Get on the fast track to understanding neuroscience Research into the human brain has exploded in recent years, and neuroscience has become a major program at many universities and a required course for a wide range of studies. Neuroscience For Dummies tracks to an introductory neuroscience class, giving you an understanding of the brain's structure and function, as well as a look into the relationship between memory, learning, emotions, and the brain. Providing insight into the biology of mental illness and a glimpse at future treatments and applications of neuroscience, Neuroscience For Dummies is a fascinating read for students and general interest readers alike.

The brain holds the secrets to our personalities, our use of language, our love of music, and our memories. Neuroscience For Dummies looks at how this complex structure works, according to the most recent scientific discoveries, illustrated by helpful diagrams and engaging anecdotes.


Helpful diagrams and engaging anecdotes enhance material The latest scientific discoveries are sprinkled throughout Tracks to a typical introductory neuroscience class From how the brain works to how you feel emotions, Neuroscience For Dummies offers a comprehensive overview of the fascinating study of the human brain.

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

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Darryl Greer · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this book is for dummies, I hate to read one for intellectuals.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took this book out from the college library three months ago as a joke to help with my extended project (Evaluating the Effectiveness of Music Therapy on Dopamine Related Illnesses). I thought nothing of this book; I've always heard bad things about the '... For Dummies' series so I thought maybe I'd find a good joke or a pun or something... you get the jist.

I thought wrong. This book is a godsend. You want to learn about neuroscience but don't really want to? Read this. You have no time but want to set yourself a ridiculous challenge? Read this. You need to do a brain operation to remove an aneurysm tomorrow? ... Maybe not, go hand yourself in to the police.

The point is, this book is good; it gives you information in a format that makes it easy to explore and read. The language is simple and doesn't make you feel like the village idiot. As its author said, it is split into sections that allows you to jump into areas of interest without prior knowledge, and for this, I am incredibly grateful for such a book. The text also points out important information and research evidence and trivia with key symbols that makes it so simple to navigate.

I really don't know how I could have done this extended project without this book. I promised myself I'd give it a rave review upon finishing my essay - that was 13 minutes ago. This is only getting four stars because come on, this is a book on neuroscience. But hey ho, if you want to self destruct, what could be a funner way than to learn about neuroscience! Go out with a bang, or at least with knowledge.

[Joseph Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who always joked about the ‘for Dummies’ series, I was forced to eat my words. I read this cover to cover as I do not come from a background in neuroscience and wanted to pursue a career in the field. I have since completed a postgraduate level research degree in one of the world’s best universities for the subject. Although that is obviously not attributable to one book, this definitely gave me a good foundation for applying and excelling at the interview stage. Highly recommend.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not ashamed. Well, a little ashamed. Found this as a library ebook and took a look as I'd always wanted to study neuro but never did. It was a decent way to get an overview of neuroscience (as far as I could tell) without having too much detail (which i'd forget anyway) in a short amount of time. I did reference a real neuroscience textbook to go more in depth in the areas I was interested in. Looking at the two side by side makes the dummies book look like a joke, but when I finished reading areas I was most curious about in the real textbook I was happy to jump back to the dummies version to coast on through. It was a perfectly decent gist giving book that kept me interested and curious throughout.

[جلال ابوالعلا · Rating 4 out of 5]

good for an introduction to neuroscience.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hugely helpful for building enough background knowledge to succeed in grad school clinical neuroanatomy & physiology class.

[Bronwyn Lok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review at a href="http://www.goodreads.com">htt....

The human brain is quite a fascinating subject. Its abilities, its potential, how it came to be, and more. While it had nothing to do with I am studying, but I have always been curious. The wonderful thing about this book was how it took a really complicated subject and presented it in the simplest way possible. It provides a pretty decent overview of the structure of the brain, the neurons, the nervous system, the senses, locomotion, and a lot more. This book also relates neural dysfunctions and mental illness to the parts of the brain discussed, along with promising future treatments.
I really enjoyed learning about the interesting facts about our brain, like how the things we learn by day were played back in the hippocampus during REM sleep, reinforcing learning. It is why getting enough sleep is important for students. I also found out from this book how remembering something in the same context it was first learned is easier, like how scuba divers who had learned a list of words underwater find it easier to recall them underwater later. There is also some discussion about more profound topics, such as the biological basis of consciousness and neural augmentations possible in the future. Even though it is a non-fiction book, I had fun reading it as it helps you learn a lot of interesting new things.
However, even though this book had quite a few diagrams, I think it really needed a lot more. Neuroscience is, after all, a complicated subject. Still, it is perfect for readers curious about this subject, as it serves as a good introduction to sate your curiosity before you dive deep into it.

[Julian Meynell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for an overview into the basics of Neuroscience before diving in deeper to the subject. This book was an obvious place to start. Obviously there is only so accessible a book on Neuroscience can be but this book is very accessible given the subject matter. As to how good it is at knowing the material, I don't obviously have first hand knowledge of that, but it did infact work for me as a general introduction before I move on to more serious things.

[Lucie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not as much of "for dummies" as I hoped for, but I still got a fairly good picture about how the nervous system works. And I was fascinated with the details about consciousness, learning and mental illness.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has a big mistake in it ( pg 118 ) , confuses ' hearing aids ' with ' cochealar implants '. Also ' junk DNA ( pg 298 ) has been discovered not to be junk at all.

[Melichichi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dummies series is self-explanatory. Great starting point for beginners.

[Greg Parrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK... very high level overview of neuroscience and relatively up to date. I'm always looking for that next level deeper in the details.

[Nele · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Neuroscience for Dummies" von Frank Amthor
5/5☆

Für meine Studium wollte ich mir einen allgemeinen Überblick über Neurowissenschaften und habe mir dieses Buch bestellt, da es eine günstige und studierendenfreundliche Alternative zu Fachliteratur ist.
Amthor erklärt präzise aber auch beispielhaft alles Wichtige über Neurobiologie und gliedert das Buch in sinnvolle Abschnitte, die es dem Lesenden ermöglichen, das Werk ebenfalls als Nachschlagewerk und nicht nur als Buch zu nutzen.

Ich war begeistert von der Kompaktheit und Klarheit, mit der der Stoff vermittelt wird und obwohl man sich durchaus beim Lesen konzentrieren muss, war es gut verständlich.

Gleichzeitig bin ich angetan vom Konzept der "For Dummies"-Reihe, da sie immer mit bestimmten Symboliken und viel Zusatzmaterial arbeitet.

Ich kann dieses Buch sehr empfehlen, wenn man einen guten und detaillierten, jedoch nicht zu spezifischen Überblick über Neurobiologie erhalten möchte.

[Kate Barrios · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a neuroscience major I can tell you that this is in fact introductory to the average person HOWEVER it is not for neuroscience or psychobio majors. This was more of a been there knew that type of read. Introductory neuroscience courses go WAYY more in depth than this book ie) the physiological workings of saltatory conduction, Brodmann’s area maps, Na+ K+ channels in depth, microglia/glia/astrocytes, among other things. I recommend this book for highschoolers and people with general interest of the brain. If ur career is toward neuroscience this book is kind of second nature/intuitive and it’s not the most optimal way of learning everything you need to know

[Shauntelle James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neuroscience & Physiology Explanation

I wanted to read this book to gain exposure to biological and human affects of the brain. This was just that and more. It lays our the phylogenetic structures easily and expands on how they develop and are different. The book makes references to genetics and animal structures. It also makes very good explanations about some of the common human brain dysfunctions.

[Jiyoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great if you want to learn more about neuroscience. It covers topics from the anatomy of the brain to movement, consciousness, and disorders. One complaint is that the author goes into too many technical details, especially considering that this is a "For Dummies" book. As a beginner to neuroscience, I found myself struggling at parts. But overall this is a great read!

[Ashley Covert · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a psychology major, I delved into both behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience. I purchased this book in anticipation of it being a valuable resource, but it fell short of my expectations. Mastering these types of sciences demands visual elements such as illustrations, diagrams, and practical examples, which the book lacked.

[Rosalind · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for fun really, as opposed to reading it academically. However,! I must say that I found it very well written in a way that doesn’t overwhelm a new reader to the study of the body’s signal and senses.

[James]

Finished 2nd edition audiobook, waiting on 3rd edition audiobook. Although I may get an ebook version of 3rd edition and read it, as a lot of the audiobook content went over my head, so reading it may help understand and remember it.

[Caitlin]

I read the 2012 edition which is now quite a bit outdated. The author put in some good jokes though and it's a nice overview. Probably hard to understand without some background as it still has a lot of unexplained jargon, but it is pretty accessible nontheless.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s exactly what you’d expect — a good, easy to follow, basic yet broad overview of neuroscience.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good starter book. It does show how little we really know about how the brain works etc.

[Cat Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title says it all.

[Steven Kippax · Rating 5 out of 5]

The upside is I didn't find it a difficult read (or else I might be in the wrong field), the even bigger upside is it simplified a few concepts I was confused about very well.

[Nathan Hebda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good review though could have been better organized

[Emre Yorgancigil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basics of neuroscience

Great piece to first step. Only basic high school level background is enough to digest all. Can have more visuals

[Nilendu Misra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sulci has a U - groove. Gyri has a R - ridge. Basic, but most important stuff to go deeper into more, is explained exceptionally well. Great read!

[Thomas Fratkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“One attribute associated with human intelligence is language, which, when defined as the use of sign sequences within a complex grammar, appears to be uniquely human. What’s interesting about language — at least from a neuroscientist’s perspective — is that it resides on only one side of the brain (the left side in most right-handers). What makes it mind-boggling is that the two sides of a human brain appear nearly identical in both large- and small-scale organization. In other words, there appears to be no physical difference between the two halves. Neuroscientists know of no circuit or structure or cell unique to the left side of the brain that would explain its language capacity compared to the lack of it on the right side. Yet, as seen in patients whose left and right brain halves have been disconnected for medical reasons, the left side is capable of carrying on a conversation about recent experience, but the right side is not.”

So glad this book exists.

[. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Тая аудиокнига е уникална. Препоръпвам я на всеки който учи и/или се интересува от невроанатомия и нефрофизиология. Особено я првпоръчвам на колегите от 2ри курс. Слуша се много леко и навлиза толкова дълбоко колкото и неразбираемите учебници като напр. Този на уважаемия бездарен многоиздателен автор акад. Овчаров.
Аеотрът може да не е академик КАМБАН, а простичък професор по невронаука от Алабама, но Овчаров и други аетори не могат да му стъпят на малкия пръст, като обяснителни способности.

Книгата навлиза дълбоко, колкото всеки учебник по физиология.
Преди малко я дослушах в Storytel -
https://www.storytel.com/bg/bg/books/...

И пак научих нещо, което в никой НОРМАЛЕН (ЗА НЕИДИОТИ) учебник до ся за НС не съм го видял.

Налоксонът (опиоиден антагонист, койтонсе дава когато херцоманът е предобрил с хероин защото инхибира хероин, морфин и др. Опиоиди) инхибира и плацебоефекта.

Сигурно го е пишело в дебелите тухли, но от всичката излята излишна информация там не съм обърнал внимание.

Друг любим цитат :
"Това, че по-възрастните хора не чуват по-високи честоти се използва от някои ученици, които си слагат рингтон с висока честота на телефоните за да не ги чуят учителите" Мн добра книга... :D

[Milena A. Hatada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neurociência para leigos foi muito mais biológico - literalmente falando - do que eu esperava. Mas me surpreendi porque achei extremamente bacana e interessante saber como, de fato, funciona nosso cérebro, quais são as funcionalidades de cada área, como funcionam os neurônios, que doenças afetam o que.

Mas se quiser saber mais de neurociência comportamental, esse não é o livro pra você! Não se engane como eu acabei me enganando hahahaha.

Indico para qualquer pessoa que tenha interesse em conhecer de forma fácil e objetiva como funciona nosso cérebro, as doenças que os afetam e algumas várias curiosidades, além de algumas visões para o “futuro” (pois esse livro já é meio antiguinho).