No part of this book, including interior design, cover design, and icons, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd., 6045 Freemont Blvd., Mississauga, ON L5R 4J3, or online at www.wiley.com/ go/permissions. For authorization to photocopy items for corporate, personal, or educational use, please contact in writing The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For more information, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free, 1-800-893-5777.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK ARE INTENDED TO FURTHER GENERAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, UNDERSTANDING, AND DISCUSSION ONLY AND ARE NOT INTENDED AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS RECOMMENDING OR PROMOTING A SPECIFIC METHOD, DIAGNOSIS, OR TREATMENT BY PHYSICIANS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PATIENT. THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN VIEW OF ONGOING RESEARCH, EQUIPMENT MODIFICATIONS, CHANGES IN GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS, AND THE CONSTANT FLOW OF INFORMATION RELATING TO THE USE OF MEDICINES, EQUIPMENT, AND DEVICES, THE READER IS URGED TO REVIEW AND EVALUATE THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE PACKAGE INSERT OR INSTRUCTIONS FOR EACH MEDICINE, EQUIPMENT, OR DEVICE FOR, AMONG OTHER THINGS, ANY CHANGES IN THE INSTRUCTIONS OR INDICATION OF USAGE AND FOR ADDED WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS. READERS SHOULD CONSULT WITH A SPECIALIST WHERE APPROPRIATE. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY ANY PROMOTIONAL STATEMENTS FOR THIS WORK. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM.
For general information on John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd., including all books published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., please call our warehouse, Tel 1-800-567-4797. For reseller information, including discounts and premium sales, please call our sales department, Tel 416-646-7992. For press review copies, author interviews, or other publicity information, please contact our marketing department, Tel 416-646-4584, Fax 416-236-4448. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http:// booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Amthor, Frank
Neuroscience for dummies / Frank Amthor. Includes index.
Issued also in electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-118-08686-5
1. Neurosciences--Popular works.
2. Brain--Popular works. I. Title.
QP376.A57 2011 612.8’2 C2011-902699-6
ISBN 978-1-118-08686-5 (paper); 978-1-118-08967-5 (ePDF); 978-1-118-08968-2 (ePub); 978-1-118-08966-8 (Mobi)
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 RRD 16 15 14 13 12
About the Author
Frank Amthor is a professor of psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he also holds secondary appointments in the UAB Medical School Department of Neurobiology, the School of Optometry, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He has been an NIH supported researcher for over 20 years and has also been supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Sloan Foundation, and the Eyesight Foundation. His research is focused on retinal and central visual processing and neural prostheses. He has published over 100 refereed journal articles, book chapters and conference abstracts.
Dr. Amthor’s career has been devoted to understanding neural computation, both for its own sake, and for the sake of making neural prosthesis that restore and augment human function. His specific research has been to investigate complex neural computations in retinal ganglion cells, the first locus in the visual system of highly specific and nonlinear analyses such as motion and directional selectivity. The investigative techniques he has used include virtually the entire suite of single cell neurophysiological techniques, including single cell extracellular recording, sharp electrode intracellular recording and staining, patch clamp recording, optical imaging with both calcium and potentiometric dyes, dual electrode recording, and, most recently, microelectrode array recording. His current research interests involve further translating basic research on the retina to the development of neural prostheses both for the visual system and for other disabilities.
No professional neuroscientist is competently up to date on the entire brain or nervous system, and what we know and understand about it is constantly changing. Although a great deal of time and effort has gone into making sure the material in this book is accurate and up to date, any mistakes within are mine alone. If you find an error or would like to make any other comments about this book, feel free to contact me at amthorfr@gmail.com.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com
For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993 or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Noah Hart, Lavonne Roberts, Corrie Socolovitch, Christin Swinford
Proofreaders: Laura Albert, BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services, Lauren Mandelbaum
Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC
Deborah Barton, Vice President and Director of Operations
Jennifer Smith, Publisher, Professional and Trade Division
Alison Maclean, Managing Editor
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies
Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
3: Understanding How Neurons
Part III: Moving Right Along: Motor Systems
Intelligence: The Thinking Brain and Consciousness
Brain
Getting
Chapter 15: Learning and Memory
Neuroscience For Dummies
Neuroscience For Dummies
Neuroscience For Dummies
the heart — if you don’t mind mixing a few body parts — of the nervous system. But in this book, I explain some very complex ideas and connections in a way that both students enrolled in introductory neuroscience courses and those who are just interested in the topic for fun can understand.
To use and understand this book, you don’t have to know anything about the brain except that you have one. In this book, I cover as much of the basics as possible with simple language and easy-to-understand diagrams, and when you encounter technical terms like anterior cingulate cortex or vestibulospinal reflex, I explain what they mean in plain English.
This book is designed to be modular for the simple reason that I want you to be able to find the information you need. Each chapter is divided into sections, and each section contains information about some topic relevant to neuroscience, such as
✓ The key components of the nervous system
✓ How neurons work and what the different kinds of neurons are
✓ What systems are involved in planning and executing complex actions
✓ The role of the neocortex in processing thoughts
The great thing about this book is that you decide where to start and what to read. It’s a reference you can jump into and out of at will. Just head to the table of contents or the index to find the information you want.
Note: You can use this book as a supplemental text in many undergraduate courses because I discuss the neuron and brain function as a system. Typical undergraduate perception courses, for example, give short (and usually unsatisfactory) introductions to neurons and neural processing and little if any coverage of cognition. Cognitive psychology and neuroscience courses typically cover cognition well but often don’t ground cognition at the level of neurons. Behavioral neuroscience courses sometimes ignore cognition and neurophysiology almost altogether while doing a decent job explaining heuristics and phenomenology of behavior and learning. You can also use this book as an adjunct to graduate or health profession courses where the nervous system or mental illnesses or disorders are mentioned but little explicit coverage is given of the nervous system and the brain.
Conventions Used in This Book
To help you navigate through this book, I’ve set up a few conventions:
✓ Italic is used for emphasis and to highlight new words or terms that are defined.
How This Book Is Organized
To help you find information that you’re looking for, this book is divided into five parts. Each part covers a particular topic related to neuroscience and contains chapters relating to that part.
Part I: Introducing Your Nervous System
In Part I, I explain the overall structure of the brain and nervous system and how its component neurons function. Chapter 1 gives an overview of neuroscience, including some of the methodology used to study the nervous system and how it is evolving. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous systems, including major modules and some fiber tracts. Chapter 3 is an introduction to neurons, the all-important universal components of the nervous system.
Part II: Translating the Internal and External World through Your Senses
How the various senses work is the subject of Part II. Chapter 4 treats the skin senses, from receptors to cortical processing. Chapter 5 covers the visual system starting at photoreceptors and tracing the visual signal through numerous brain areas that process this sense. Chapter 6 does the same for the auditory system. Taste and smell are the subject of Chapter 7. These chapters give an overview of many of the topics that would be the subject of a college perception course.
Part III: Moving Right Along: Motor Systems
Movement and motor control are treated in Part III. Just as the sensory system can be covered from receptor to high-order cortical processing, the motor system can be looked at as a hierarchy from muscle and motor neuron, to spinal reflex and pattern generator circuits, to cortical motor control, to frontal and prefrontal planning and execution. I cover movement basics in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 deals with spinal cord level coordination and its communication with the brain stem and higher centers. Chapter 10 takes up the cortex and action planning and sequencing. Chapter 11 deals with unconscious aspects of neuronal processing associated with behavior.
Neuroscience For Dummies
Over the ages, a lot of myths have sprung up about the brain and how its functioning impacts behavior, movement, psychological states, and more. This icon highlights those misunderstandings.
We wouldn’t know what we know about how the brain works without the diligent work of scientists and researchers who asked important questions and sought the answers. Look for this icon to find information about key studies or observations that profoundly affected what people now know about the brain and its function.
Where to Go from Here
Finally, the purpose of this book is to get you up to speed fast in understanding neurons and the nervous system, particularly the brain, but there are many important neuroscience topics that fall well beyond the scope of this book. Here’s just a sampling: intra-neuronal metabolism and second messenger cascades, association of neurological deficits with lesions in specific tracts and nuclei, traditional learning theory, and modern genetics. You can find detailed discussion of most of these subjects in Kandel, Schwartz, and Jessel’s Principles of Neural Science, 4th Edition (McGraw-Hill, 2000), the bible of neuroscience books.
