About this Book
The past thirty years has witnessed an exponential increase in the understanding of the nervous system at all levels of analyses. Perhaps, the most striking developments have been in the understanding of the cell and molecular biology of the neuron. The field has moved from treating the neuron as a simple black box that added up impinging synaptic input to fire an action potential to one in which a host of biochemical and biophysical processes act synergistically to process, transmit and store information. From Molecules to Networks - An Introduction into Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience is a comprehensive summary of current knowledge of the morphological, biochemical, and biophysical properties of nerve cells. It is written by leading experts in the field and intended for graduate students, advanced undergraduate students and professionals. The book has several unique features. First, it is highly referenced with classic and contemporary citatations from the primary literature so that readers can pursue topics of interest in greater detail. Second, it is the first comprehensive treatment of cellular and molecular neuroscience that includes the application of mathematical modeling approaches to illustrate the complex synergistic processes underlying the operation and regulation of nerve cells. Third, it relates emerging cell biological processes to various higher level information processing at the network level. Fourth, it contains a final chapter that illustrates the ways in which the great strides in understanding the biochemical and biophysical properties of nerve cells have led to fundamental insights into an important aspects of brain diseases.