Neuroscience for beginners

[albion]

I'm not totally sure this is the right section but....


I recently encountered a few lectures by Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran on various video sites including the TED talk and beyond belief, which in turn inspired me to order his book Phantoms of the Mind.

Basically, I am looking for other neuroscience books that will be understandable to a layman (but one who is willing to make the effort to research more in-depth points if necessary) and here seemed an ideal place to ask

Thanks.

 

[Piggy]

I always like Michael Gazzaniga's work.

 

[Elaedith]

Oliver Sacks, Josepth LeDoux, Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio are all very readable.

 

[albion]

Thanks very much

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

I found this readable:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neuroscienc...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218296878&sr=8-1

 

[Ryan O'Dine]

I'll second the Antonio Damasio recommendation by Elaedith. Also, William Calvin has written several nice books (like The Throwing Madonna). And you might enjoy Stanislas Dehaene's The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics.

 

[volatile]

Conversations on Consciousness edited by Susan Blackmore is good, as is Dennet's Neuroscience and Philosophy. There are lots of others, depending on which particular area of neuroscience interests you.

I can also second the recommendation to read Oliver Sacks - The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is really readable.

 

[borealys]

I third the Oliver Sacks recommendation. His work is very accessible, and has the bonus of being quite entertaining. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat is a series of case studies, not necessarily a good survey of the whole subject, but a very good read if you find that sort of thing interesting.

 

[albion]

I've begun my foray into the field with Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, LeDoux's Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are and Calvin's The River That Runs Uphill: A Journey from the Big Bang to the Big Brain & The Throwing Madonna: Essays on the Brain.

As someone pretty new to science, who had only a vague interest in it at school, I must admit to being one of those who became interested because of Dawkins' strident critiques of Religion. From that point on though I've developed a love for the sciences (in a very basic manner) and the field of neuroscience is stunning in both its practical and philosophical implications. Dr. Ramachandran's insights into stroke rehabiltation is both sublimely complex and wonderfully simple and that appears to be barely the tip of the iceberg.

So, thanks for the recommendations

 

[Gurdur]

Take a look at these, see what grabs you, then look 'em up on Amazon. Harold Klawans is very good.