Rita Carter

If there is a course out there entitled "Neuroscience for eight-year-olds," this is surely the text for it.

Let me be clear: This is an authoritative, beautifully illustrated, highly informative... comic book. No, not really, but it isn't a book. It's a bunch of illustrations with a little text scattered here and there. Everything consists of two-page spreads on one or another topic. All are illustrated in beautiful color, with both illustrations and photographs. It must have cost a mint to produce.

But it's like a deck of flashcards. There is no narrative. Want a two-page spread on the limbic system? Here it is. Want a detailed description of the limbic system? Sorry, we don't do text.

How you will feel about this depends on what you want. I bought this book because I wanted the very latest research. But I wanted something to read, to help get the big picture. Instead, what I got was a lot of, ahem, big pictures. It's not the same thing.… (more)

If one wants to learn about the basics of neuroscience or simply how the brain works, this book serves as a good introduction. It has wonderful, 3D illustrations, and the language is easy enough to understand. It (literally) copies the main ideas from the important thinkers such as Sacks, Ramachandran, Le Doux and others. (I'm not sure how science books deal with citing case studies and other important ideas, but although it mentions the names of these thinkers, it doesn't really cite them directly for it.) That said, it is definitely more interesting and rewarding to read about the ideas, theories and studies from the main sources themselves. Typographical errors aside, this book, read slowly, might serve to heighten one's interest in the neurosciences.… (more)