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. His research is focused on retinal and central visual processing and neural prostheses.
Introduction 1 Part 1: Introducing the Nervous System 5 Chapter 1: A Quick Trip through the Nervous System 7 Chapter 2: All about the Brain and Spinal Cord 23 Chapter 3: Understanding How Neurons Work 51 Part 2: Translating the Internal and External World through Your Senses 69 Chapter 4: Feeling Your Way: The Skin Senses 71 Chapter 5: Looking at Vision 87 Chapter 6: Sounding Off: The Auditory System 109 Chapter 7: Odors and Taste 127 Part 3: Moving Right Along: Motor Systems 145 Chapter 8: Movement Basics 147 Chapter 9: Coordinating Things More: The Spinal Cord and Pathways 159 Chapter 10: Planning and Executing Actions 173 Chapter 11: Unconscious Actions with Big Implications 191 Part 4: Intelligence: The Thinking Brain and Consciousness 211 Chapter 12: Understanding Intelligence, Consciousness, and Emotions 213 Chapter 13: How the Brain Processes Thoughts 239 Chapter 14: The Executive Brain 259 Chapter 15: Learning and Memory 277 Chapter 16: Developing and Modifying Brain Circuits: Plasticity 301 Chapter 17: Neural Dysfunctions, Mental Illness, and Drugs That Affect the Brain 325 Part 5: The Part of Tens 339 Chapter 18: Ten (Or So) Crucial Brain Structures 341 Chapter 19: Ten Tricks of Neurons That Make Them Do What They Do 349 Chapter 20: Ten Amazing Facts about the Brain 357 Chapter 21: Ten Promising Treatments for the Future 367 Index 375