The New Cognitive Neurosciences: Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Not an introduction to the field
Review: I am a freshman in High School and after taking a semester course in Biology Honors and a little guidance from my teacher I set out to do my final human anatomy project on how drugs affect the synaptic regions in nerve cells. Using this book and the Internet i completed the project successfully. The thing about this book is that if you already don't have some understanding of the nervous system, this book may be confusing, yet if you want the latest in the field and not to much history and coverage on the supposed "Mind-Body Problem" get this book. This book is a great text for showing the cell processes and overall nervous system.If you just want a basic understanding of how the nervous system works, get another book, yet if you want to comprehend and do some nice research papers i would recommend this book. This book is a compilation of most the research in the cognitive neurosciences and is in depth and comprehensive as books get. Sure its size and weight may have caused some back strain when in my bookbag, but it was worth it. Check your library for this book before you pay out if you just need it for a paper or project, but if you want to do some learning like I did then buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Review
Review: I am a neurologist. This is the single best book I have read for providing the physiological and anatomical basis for human cognitive behavior. Each chapter is written by an outstanding neuroscientist.

Rating:
Summary: Not the editorial quality I expected
Review: I checked this book out from our library to see if it would meet my needs as an in-depth introduction and more to the neurosciences. I have a number of MIT press/Bradford books and expected quite a bit from this one. I was impressed with the breadth and range of topics and the quality of scholarship, but the incredible number of typos, particularly in the second section, left me steamed. Those poor authors who had the spelling of their names butchered in print have my sympathy. These typos include some in the diagrams, which lead to confusion. I expect a better quality of editing from a large professional university press. I bought Principles of Neuroscience (Kandel) instead. My advice would be to check out a copy of the Gazzaniga from your library and go over it to see if it is acceptable to you before you spend [...] on it.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely spectacular achievement
Review: I think I can claim to be probably the only clinical neurologist who has read both this book and its first edition cover to cover, which really reflects the fascination of the articles more than incredible compulsivity on my part. The book is divided into 11 sections--development, plasticity, sensory systems, motor systems, attention, memory, language, higher cognitive functions, emotion, evolution, and consciousness, with anywhere from 8-15 articles in each section (total 94 chapters!), averaging around 15 pages each, and a helpful introduction written by an expert for the sections. There are also a large number of color illustrations. For the most part, the articles are very clearly written reviews, and would be appropriate for the upper undergraduate or graduate level student. The emphasis is obviously more on neuroscience than on clinical medicine, though helpful correlates to neurological patients can be found in many chapters. Michael Gazzaniga has once again done a masterful job in assembling contributors, and it is wonderful to see how much the field has advanced since the first edition of this book was published in 1995. For anyone with more than a casual interest in the field, this book is a MUST HAVE!!

Rating:
Summary: The Cognitive Neurosciences
Review: The Cognitive Neurosciences by M.S. Gazzaniga is an exhaustive (and I mean exhaustive) collection of articles representing major theories in each field of cognitive neuroscience. The book focuses on cognitive neuroscience as opposed to something like neuropsychopharmacology or neuroanatomy. It also weighs a ton and a paperback version would be most welcome. Being comprehensive, there is a good deal of depth, but not the kind of depth you'd see in a text on a specific area (e.g., memory). That being said, this is the high-mark for this kind of comprehensive book. My favorite book in the area. Stephen Cox