The Synaptic Organization of the Brain

by Gordon M. Shepherd

Book Overview

The third edition of The Synaptic Organization of the Brain continues the tradition of earlier editions in focusing on the principles underlying the organization of neurons and synapses into functional circuits within the best-studied regions of the brain: autonomic ganglia, spinal cord, olfactory bulb, retina, cerebellum, thalamus, basal ganglia, olfactory cortex, hippocampus, and neocortex. To ensure authoritative coverage, the chapters have been...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195062566
• ISBN13: 9780195062564
• Release Date: April 1990
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive book on neuroscience/cortical networks

This book provides a great understanding of the basic elements of brain and their interactions. It takes a radical approach of synaptic organization as the basis of brain functions. It is a must for everyone interested in neuro/brain/mind science.

The Synaptic View of Brain Function

This is a very good neurophysiology book from the morphological and physiological viewpoints. It's inexpensive and well written. Thanks Gordon.

Marvelous book for the brain aficionado ...

This is an excellent book: clear, well-organized, and well-written. It examines how groups of neurons give rise to brain functions. The introductory chapter lays the groundwork, going over basic theories of how groups of cells perform computations and what mechanisms they use to do it. Subsequent chapters stand alone, each with a focus on a particular brain region (hippocampus, basal ganglia, cortex, thalamus, retina, etc.).I agree with an earlier reviewer: this book is not for the uninitiated, although it is spectacularly helpful for theoretical neuroscientists who are modeling cell assemblies as well as experimentalists working at the cell or systems level. However, I disagree with his list of good introductory books. "Principles of Neural Science" in particular is a good reference but not terribly readable. I would recommend Nicholls' "From Neuron to Brain" as a more accessible book about brain function. The Scientific American series, including "The Scientific American Book of the Brain," is quite good factually and provides a more general overview including some psychology, but the quality of the writing varies. Finally, for kicks, a newcomer should try the enjoyable, controversial "How the Mind Works" by Stephen Pinker. He is biased and arrogant, but also clever and entertaining.

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my brain study group used this book for textbook. my major is traditional chinese medicine treatment of neurology disease, so i need some neuroscience part. this book is not easy reading, but this book gaved me many information for neuroscience.

Essential reading for serious neuroscientists

This book is arguably the most fundamental and important book in the entire field of neuroscience. It's not easy reading; an unbelievable amount of information is packed into its 500-odd pages. It's also definitely NOT suitable for newcomers to the field; for them I recommend "Principles of Neural Science", Shepherd's "Neurobiology" and Johnston and Wu's "Foundations of Cellular Neurophysiology". But once you know something about the brain, you'll want to read this book very carefully to really understand the current state-of-the-art of our understanding of neural circuits. Most major brain systems are covered, and the authors are all recognized experts in their fields. People who build computer simulations of the brain (like me) will find this book to be a gold mine of useful information, and the references are a great starting point for further investigations. This is the fourth edition of this text, and it just keeps getting better and better.