Best Neuroscience Books to Start Studying

See the complete list of the best books to study neuroscience, all of them easy to understand.

Hello friends!

Neuroscience is a relatively new field that studies the brain and nervous system. Many people want to know more about this fascinating field of study, so I often receive emails and comments about what would be the best neuroscience books to start studying.

Below, I list the books that I consider essential for a first contact. Evidently, production in the area is incessant and we see new publications appearing all the time, from basic books to very advanced books, for specialists.

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Our objective here is to indicate the beginning, that is, where to start, ok?

Best neuroscience books to start studying

The Happiness Formula by Stefan Klein

How recent neuroscience discoveries can help you produce positive emotions, harmony and well-being.

Klein carried out a pioneering work in bringing together this valuable knowledge that until now was dispersed in documents that were difficult to access and even unpublished. Apart from this intelligent, humorous and easy-to-understand reading, we have the opportunity to unravel a fascinating world of information about how the functioning of the brain determines our relationships in the face of events and take a fundamental step towards true happiness.

Neuroscience, Unraveling the Nervous System, by Author: Mark F. Bear; Barry W. Connors; Michael A. Paradiso

Written specifically for undergraduate students, Neuroscience, 3rd Edition, is designed to encourage critical thinking. Typical neuroscience textbooks assume that their readers already have extensive prior knowledge of biology, chemistry, and physics, while psychological physiology texts are generally more superficial when they cover the neurobiology necessary to understand brain functions. Neuroscience: Unraveling the nervous system perfectly balances these aspects, with a clear and light writing style that makes it easy to understand and retain even the most difficult neurobiological principles.

Principles of Neuroscience, by Eric Kandel; James Schwartz; Thomas M. Jessell; Steven Siegelbaum; AJ Hudspeth

Deciphering the relationship between the brain and human behavior has always been one of the greatest challenges in science. Written by leading researchers in the field, including 2000 Nobel Prize winner Eric R. Kandel, this absolute classic presents an up-to-date view of the discipline of neuroscience, reflecting the latest research that has transformed scholarship over the last decade.

One Hundred Billion Neurons – Fundamental Concepts of Neuroscience, by Roberto Lent

Within the Biomedical Sciences, the term Neuroscience is relatively recent. Its current use, adopted in this book, corresponds to the need to integrate contributions from different areas of scientific research and clinical sciences to understand the functioning of the nervous system. Current scholars of its highest organ, the brain, for example, know that in order to understand it it is necessary to break down the barriers of traditional disciplines, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurology, psychology, to mention just some of the divisions that have been created, in large part, to characterize the study methods.

This tendency is very evident in recent scientific works, which deal with the more complex functions of this organ, such as emotions and consciousness, in which their authors feel the need to support the main concepts with evidence from different areas. With that same spirit, Professor Roberto Lent adopted the concept of Neuroscience for this textbook, One Hundred Billion Neurons, aimed at learning the nervous system at the undergraduate level. In the content of its chapters, the reader will verify the author’s concern with the application of the principle of multidisciplinarity to the theme, understanding as such not the mere description of information from different disciplines, but the careful construction of data that interrelate to allow knowledge to emerge.

The Changing Brain by Norman Doidge

The brain changes. It is a plastic, living organ and can actually transform its own structures and functions, even at advanced ages. Neuroplasticity promises to overthrow the outdated notion that the adult brain is rigid and unchanging. This book presents cases that detail the amazing progress of patients, such as a woman who was born with only half a brain but managed to adapt and lead a normal life; a person labeled as mentally ill, who cured his handicaps and now helps others to do the same; blind people who saw again and cured learning difficulties.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

Scientist and neurologist Oliver Sacks is also an excellent narrator, possessing the rare power of sharing with the lay reader certain worlds that would otherwise remain unknown or restricted to specialists. In ‘The man who mistook his wife for a hat’ we are dealing with patients who, immersed in a world of dreams and brain deficiencies, preserve their imagination and build their own moral identity. Here, clinical reports are intentionally transformed into literary artifacts, showing that only the narrative form restores a human aspect to the abstraction of the disease, revealing new realities for scientific investigation and problematizing the limits between the physical and the psychic.

Ghosts in the Brain by VS Ramachadran

In Ghosts in the Brain, cases are reported that occurred in the office of the Indian neurologist and neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the Brain and Cognition Center at the University of California, San Diego, where he dares to search the brain for explanations for situations that would be more easily attributed to mysticism, eccentricity, or just plain madness.

Based on cases such as that of a partially blind woman who sees cartoon characters sit on the lap of the doctor in front of her, an athlete who lost an arm but feels horrible pain in the “ghost” of her amputated hand or a teacher who he insists that the paralyzed side of his body is still moving. Ramachandran used different therapies and investigative methods for each patient. From a lie detector and sophisticated magnetic resonance equipment to a cotton swab, or a mirror, the intriguing particularities of each patient emerge during the course of the investigation.

And they end up allowing Ramachandran a vision – hypothetical, but no less interesting for that reason – of how the brain produces our sensations, feelings and, why not, consciousness. With a foreword by Oliver Sacks, author of the bestselling Awakenings, Ghosts in the Brain was written at the insistent request of Ramachandran’s students and colleagues.

For the publication of the work, he received help from the award-winning science journalist Sandra Blakeslee, who over the last ten years has been demonstrating her competence and style, writing about neurosciences for The New York Times. An amazing book about the secrets of the mind and about a scientist who dared to push the boundaries of science and reason. “This is a splendid book.” – Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine “It is one of the most original and accessible neurology textbooks of our generation.” —Oliver Sacks, MD, author of Awakenings “Fascinating not only for its clear and eloquent description of neurological phenomena … but also for its portrayal of Ramachandran, the enthusiast in search of the secrets of the human mind.” – The New York Times Book Review

Descartes’ Error – Antonio Damasio

To think well and make the right decisions, you have to keep a cool head and push away all feelings and emotions, right? Wrong. In this surprising and controversial book, António Damásio, who directs one of the main centers of neurological studies in the United States, shows how, in fact, the absence of emotion and feeling can destroy rationality. Using the most recent discoveries in neurobiology, Damasio challenges the traditional dualisms of Western thought — mind and body, reason and emotion, biological explanations and cultural explanations — to offer a scientific and integrated view of the human being and suggest innovative hypotheses about the functioning of human beings. of the human brain.

Buddha’s Brain by Rick Hanson

With clear explanations about the structure and functioning of the brain, the authors of ‘The Brain of Buddha’ demonstrate that it is possible to condition the mind to obtain more happiness and wisdom in everyday life through simple and quick meditative practices. Always based on scientific studies, the book shows how to modify and train the flow of thoughts to activate positive responses, with calm and compassion, instead of negative reactions, full of anger and anguish.

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