Principles of Neural Science

I have some not-so-coherent thoughts on this:
-This book taught me that we know a lot, but there is far more that we do not know. The authors are open about that. It has a lot of detailed information on molecular processes in and between neurons and on very basic mechanics of their functions. The book also provides great content on higher-level phenomena like visual perception or consciousness, but the research results are far less certain there. As a rule of thumb, if someone has a “neuro” explaination of something relevant to your everyday life it might be not as research-based as the fancy words suggest.
- Excellent, terse writing style and no-nonsense headlines which summarize the section in a few words. Also, lots and lots of clear illustrations and diagrams.
- It pays off to remember some chemistry and physics to understand the book – although it has an excellent recap for that in its appendix (The appendix has several chapters, there is a lot of background info there)
- It is a reference book that you read on a table. I used to carry it around with me quite a bit and it is clearly not made for that.