Book Title: Neuroscience

Book Description

This comprehensive open-access neuroscience textbook provides integrated coverage spanning molecular mechanisms to complex cognitive functions and clinical applications. Designed for undergraduate and graduate students, healthcare professionals, and lifelong learners, the text progresses systematically from foundational principles through advanced topics in contemporary neuroscience.

The book begins with the history of neuroscience and neuroanatomical foundations, including brain assembly, key anatomical locations, and protective coverings. It then explores cellular and molecular neuroscience in depth, covering neuronal structure, energy metabolism, molecular biology, electrical properties, synaptic communication, and information processing. Dedicated chapters examine synaptic plasticity and learning mechanisms at the cellular level.

Comprehensive coverage of sensory systems includes somatosensory processing (touch, pain, temperature), vision, vestibular and proprioceptive senses, and chemical senses (taste and smell). Motor systems chapters address both autonomic and somatic control, including the enteric nervous system. Advanced topics explore sex differences in brain organization, language processing, brain electrical rhythms, reward circuits and addiction, and mathematical approaches to neuroscience.

Clinical applications are integrated throughout, with dedicated sections on neurological diseases and disorders, case studies in clinical neuroscience, herniation syndromes, and electroneurodiagnostic techniques. Specialized content includes detailed neuroanatomical resources from University of British Columbia and Utah Electroneurodiagnostics Institute.

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0, this resource is freely available for adoption, adaptation, and distribution. The author brings 45 years of teaching experience across educational levels from K-12 through medical school, with a PhD in Neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine.