Table of Contents

Chapter 1. An Introduction to Brain and BehaviorChapter 2. Cells and Structures: The Anatomy of the Nervous SystemChapter 3. Neurophysiology: The Generation, Transmission, and Integration of Neural SignalsChapter 4. The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and NeuropharmacologyChapter 5. The Sensorimotor SystemChapter 6. Hearing, Balance, Taste, and SmellChapter 7. Vision: From Eye to BrainChapter 8. Hormones and SexChapter 9. Homeostasis: Active Regulation of the Internal EnvironmentChapter 10. Biological Rhythms and SleepChapter 11. Emotions, Aggression, and StressChapter 12. Psychopathology: The Biology of Behavioral DisordersChapter 13. Memory, Learning, and DevelopmentChapter 14. Attention and Higher CognitionChapter 15. Language and Lateralization

About the Author

Neil V. Watson and the members of his lab at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada study sex-related aspects of the structure and function of the nervous system, with ongoing grant support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. His research, which spans from the effects of hormones and pollutants on the structure of the nervous system to the relationships among social factors, cognition, and steroids in humans, has appeared in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Neuroscience, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and Brain Research. Dr. Watson received his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Western Ontario and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the faculty at SFU in 1996 where he is now Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience and Chair of Psychology. He teaches biological psychology to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students each year.S. Marc Breedlove, the Barnett Rosenberg Professor of Neuroscience at Michigan State University, has written over 130 scientific articles investigating the role of hormones in shaping the developing and adult nervous system, publishing in journals including Science, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He is also passionate about teaching in the classroom, and in the greater community through interviews with the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Newsweek, as well as broadcast programs such as All Things Considered, Good Morning America, and Sixty Minutes. He has active grant support from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Breedlove is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Psychological Science.

Reviews

"As far as I'm concerned, The Mind's Machine is the best book of its kind on the market. The level of detail in some neuroscience/biopsych textbooks can be overwhelming to 200-level psychology students, but this book finds the sweet spot between too simple and too complex."
- Scott Stoltenberg, University of Nebraska
"Students had a favorable response to the book. Some have mentioned that the most important aspect of a textbook is the layout--i.e., they want information in manageable, logically demarcated and progressing chunks, with clear illustrations. This book is very strong in this area."
- Laura Harrison, Tulane University
"It is the best approximation of the text I would design. It has a great level of coverage for introducing neuroscience, not too easy or too detailed, pitched well. I am also pretty happy with the illustration package--first of all, full color is important to students and books should all feature this. Second, the illustrations are well developed in support of the text, make good sense even on the intuitive level."
- Eric Wiertelak, Macalester College
"I like how these boxes (Researchers at Work) present important information in a unique way. I do assign these, most of the time, as required reading. The students enjoy learning how the experiment was done, rather than just the findings."
- Melissa Masiacampo, Wake Forest University