The Human Brain: Essentials of Behavioral Neuroscience [Hardcover]

Jackson Beatty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0761920617 | ISBN-13: 978-0761920618 | Edition: 1

This book is a conceptually driven and accessible introduction to behavioral neuroscience. Focused, concise and coherent, it reflects integrative trends in the field while making human neuroscience accessible to a wider student audience. Conceptually driven and concise. The field of biological psychology and behavioral neuroscience has grown exponentially in the past decade, and most textbooks have responded by becoming bloated tomes that drown students in unnecessary factoids. Beatty provides just the essentials necessary in a text that is focused, concise, and coherent. A contemporary integrative approach with an emphasis on behavior. Some books in this market focus more on biological mechanisms at the expense of how the biology t

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The greatest strength of this book is the depth of understanding that Dr. Beatty brings to his subject. His written voice is confident and authoritative. It’s usually easy to tell where authors’ personal expertise lies by how they rush the sections they don’t know as well. Dr. Beatty’s book does not show this flaw. It is consistently clear." 

(Laura Freberg )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 522 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc; 1 edition (August 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761920617
• ISBN-13: 978-0761920618
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good basic textbook for brain science, September 16, 2006

By 

Sachet (Dr. Fontaine Moore) (Easton, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Human Brain: Essentials of Behavioral Neuroscience (Hardcover)

This book possesses all the features one would expect from a textbook on brain anatomy and physiology, with the possible exception of end of chapter activities to promote learning. And with so many concepts and terminology, that would have been a good inclusion.

The loss of a star is due to the lack of some critical information and, perhaps, an unbalanced coverage of information I would expect to find, combined with too few illustrations of complex concepts.

For example, when discussing mood disorders, one of the most prevalent, AD(H)D has been omitted. Also, in the discussion of brain plasticity, no mention is made of Hebb or his famous mnemonic, "neurons that fire together, wire together." Nor does the author even mention critical brain functions such as attention and consciousness.

Especially troubling is the exclusion of information about an exciting and highly significant discovery--"mirror neurons"-- given their impact on behavior and learning. Since the studies that discovered them were reported well before this book was published, timing does not serve as a justification for ommision of this important information.

For a book with "behavioral" in the subtitle, I would expect more physiology and less anatomy and pharmacology. Although some seminal thinkers in neuroscience such as Damasio and LeDoux are mentioned, other notables such as Candace Pert and Jeffrey Schwartz are missing.

The book covers a lot of territory in a generally understandable manner, using good textbook techniques (such as the bolding of newly introduced technical terms), but perhaps too much information, not necessarily of the right kind, or in the best way. For a better understanding of this complex subject, the reader would be advised to add other references such as Rita Carter's highly accesible overview of the brain called, "Mapping the Mind" along with some of the brain coloring books as an aid to learning brain anatomy and physiology.