Table of Contents

Preface to the Fourth Edition

I. Introduction
1. Signaling in the Brain
2. Form and Function in Cells of the Brain

II. Electrical Properties of Neurons
3. Electrical Signaling in Neurons
4. Membrane Ion Channels and Ion Currents
5. Ion Channels Are Membrane Proteins
6. Ion Channels, Membrane Ion Currents, and the Action Potential
7. Diversity in the Structure and Function of Ion Channels

III. Intercellular Communication
8. Intercellular Communication: How Neurons Communicate: Gap Junctions and Neurosecretion
9. Synaptic Release of Neurotransmitters
10. Neurotransmitters and Neurohormones
11. Receptors and Transduction Mechanisms I: Receptors Coupled Directly to Ion Channels
12. Receptors and Transduction Mechanisms II: Indirectly Coupled Receptor/Ion Channel Systems
13. Sensory Receptors

IV. Behavior and Plasticity
14. The Birth and Death of a Neuron
15. Neuronal Growth and Trophic Factors
16. Adhesion Molecules and Axon Pathfinding
17. Formation, Maintenance, and Plasticity of Chemical Synapses
18. Intrinsic Neuronal Properties, Neural Networks and Behavior
19. Learning and Memory

Promotional Information

Supplementary Content Available on Oxford Medicine Online

About the Author

Irwin B. Levitan, Ph.D., Founding Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University

Leonard K. Kaczmarek, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology and Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine.

Reviews

"The text is impressively modern, with up-to date information on the trendiest areas of neurobiology . . .the book is highly visual, with figures on virtually every page. The figures deserve special comment because they are a teacher's dream: simple and uncluttered, but conceptually powerful. Frankly, although the recommendation is often absurd, The Neuron is one of those books that really does belong on every shelf. "--Nature
"The format of each chapter is ideally suited for easy, enjoyable, and almost effortless learning . . . This is a superbly written and well-illustrated text covering all of the major aspects of neuroscientific knowledge . . . every neuroscientist should keep a copy handy."--Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
"This is a first-rate textbook for a course in cellular neurobiology for upper-level university students. My colleagues and I took it out on a shakedown cruise with a class of 250 undergraduates. The wind really caught their sails, and we sped quickly through it in the ten weeks of the academic quarter. The students appreciated the consistent clarity and the uniformity of style. The illustrations are highly conceptual and were easily understood . . . The
up-to-date presentation of many exciting recent findings is a great strength. General principles are illustrated with a useful blend of data from vertebrate and invertebrate systems."--William S Messer, Jr.,
in The Quarterly Review of Biology
"An outstanding, easily readable, and quite up-to-date overview of fundamental neurobiology."--Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences