Creating Mind: How the Brain Works

Rating:
Summary: The best overview of neuroscience that I have encountered.
Review: For the reader with little or know knowledge of neurobiology, this is the book to start with. Dowling tells the story of mind, all the way from the molecular level to higher-order brain functions. Throughout the book he is clear and exact in his prose. Dowling makes a daunting field sound comprehensible; after reading this primer I want to read Dowling's more technical _Neurons and Networks: An Introduction to Neuroscience_.

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: This book is fantastic. All you need is basic school science to understand this clear and facinating explanation of how our grey matter functions. If the idea of understanding the human brain fascinates you but you think you'd never begin to understand.....read this book. It's not only easily understood, it's an interesting read as well. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: An Idiots Guide to the Brain!
Review: This book is fantastic. All you need is basic school science to understand this clear and facinating explanation of how our grey matter functions. If the idea of understanding the human brain fascinates you but you think you'd never begin to understand.....read this book. It's not only easily understood, it's an interesting read as well. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to neuroscience
Review: This book provides an excellent overview of neuroscience and how, in general, a mammalian neural system functions. The author does an excellent job of contextualizing his overview of neuroscience by providing real-world anecdotes and stories at the beginning of each chapter.

For those interested in an overview of the components and systems involved in neuroscience, this book serves as an excellent reference. The author provides clear levels of distinction and abstraction for all of the systems and elements of mamallian neural systems.

I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to neuroscience
Review: This book provides an excellent overview of neuroscience and how, in general, a mammalian neural system functions. The author does an excellent job of contextualizing his overview of neuroscience by providing real-world anecdotes and stories at the beginning of each chapter.

For those interested in an overview of the components and systems involved in neuroscience, this book serves as an excellent reference. The author provides clear levels of distinction and abstraction for all of the systems and elements of mamallian neural systems.

I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: This is simply the best introduction to neuroscience I have read that is written for non-science students. The book is short, but it covers virtually all aspects of neuroscience, from events taking place in individual synapses to how various regions of the brain contribute to memory, emotion and consciousness. Being a neuroscientist myself, I am fully aware of the complexity of this field. Yet, Professor Dowling is able to explain complex concepts in an easy-to-understand manner. For instance, many students may still have trouble understanding how a neuron's resting potential is formed, or how an action potential is generated, even after taking a whole course in neurophysiology. Yet, all of this is explained lucidly, concisely and accurately in one short chapter in this book, which in my opinion is a tour de force. The second half, which surveys the functions of different brains regions, is especially fascinating. My wish is that Dowling will soon write a new edition of another masterpiece of his, "The Retina-An Approachable Part of the Brain", which is starting to get outdated (it was published in 1987).

On the other hand, if you are a science student, the best introductory text is probably "The Neuron: Cell and Molecular Biology" by Levitan and Kaczmarek. Dowling's "Neurons and Networks" is also good, but I find it to be somewhat wordy.