Neuroscience!

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K

Katie

Hey, I was hoping that some of the old school MSII's on here who have taken Neuroscience could share with me a few study tips and textbook recommendations since most schools have the course as part of the first year curriculum.. your wisdom is much appreciated. We have a recommended textbook but the bookstore is out and I've been told by other classmates that the pictures in the book are not too helpful. There are a couple of neuroscience atlases in the bookstore as well, but they are pricey and don't have corresponding text. Does anyone know of better textbook/study aid options? Netter's is somewhat helpful for learning where all the nuclei in the brainstem are, but the diagrams don't correlate well with those in our syllabus (many of the diagrams in the syllabus are incomplete and don't contain all the structures discussed in the notes either..). thanks very much for any help in advance.

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at the beginning of the year we were given a sheet with a lot of recommended books for each course. neuroscience is a first year course here, and the biggest recommendation from the most people has been a book called "neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple" but i cant tell you personally whether or not its good until next semester :) g'luck
 
Originally posted by Katie
Hey, I was hoping that some of the old school MSII's on here who have taken Neuroscience could share with me a few study tips and textbook recommendations since most schools have the course as part of the first year curriculum.. your wisdom is much appreciated. We have a recommended textbook but the bookstore is out and I've been told by other classmates that the pictures in the book are not too helpful. There are a couple of neuroscience atlases in the bookstore as well, but they are pricey and don't have corresponding text. Does anyone know of better textbook/study aid options? Netter's is somewhat helpful for learning where all the nuclei in the brainstem are, but the diagrams don't correlate well with those in our syllabus (many of the diagrams in the syllabus are incomplete and don't contain all the structures discussed in the notes either..). thanks very much for any help in advance.

Neuroscience is notoriously hard at our school and I did really well, if this qualifies my suggestion at all:

I used Haines Atlas for neuroscience, especially for brainstem.
High Yield Neuroanatomy is an absolute must. Also, use your syllabus if adequate. Purves neuroscience is ok, but often dummies things down BELOW the level of your course. You can also get Kandel & Schwartz---great book, but too hard to read cover to cover. Would make a great reference for what doesn't make sense from the smaller books. For our school, Kandel was the "end word" when other sources disagreed.

mike
 
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Originally posted by mikecwru
Neuroscience is notoriously hard at our school and I did really well, if this qualifies my suggestion at all:

I used Haines Atlas for neuroscience, especially for brainstem.
High Yield Neuroanatomy is an absolute must. Also, use your syllabus if adequate. Purves neuroscience is ok, but often dummies things down BELOW the level of your course. You can also get Kandel & Schwartz---great book, but too hard to read cover to cover. Would make a great reference for what doesn't make sense from the smaller books. For our school, Kandel was the "end word" when other sources disagreed.

mike

thanks very much; I think that the Haines Atlas is the one in our bookstore but not sure, I'll look for it tomorrow. Unfortunately the lame-o bookstore was out of High Yield Neuroanatomy. The bookstore was also out of your recommendation, imtiaz, but thank you very much for the suggestion as well:) Our syllabus is quite good but frusturating to flip between the written text and the diagrams (unless I decide to take the syllabus apart and rearrange it in my own way).. anyway, thanks!
 
I had to go to UPenn's bookstore to get BRS Physio (and HY Neuro too, I think) this summer. :rolleyes: If you have any free time, maybe you can go over to BU or Harvard?

Good luck with the class! :) It must be challenging for sure but I'm looking forward to it next semester (gotta be better than histo in any case...triple blech).

btw, what is the consensus on "Neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple"? Is it *too* simplified?
 
Originally posted by Katie
Unfortunately the lame-o bookstore was out of High Yield Neuroanatomy.

I just went to our bookstore to get it too, and they told me a new edition will be coming out within a week, so they had to pull the old ones and send them back (?). I don't know why they would have to do that, but maybe that's what happened at your bookstore. Guess we'll have to wait.
 
I'll have to put my vote in for High Yield Neuroanatomy as well. I also have BRS Neuroanatomy, which is by the same author and almost identical, but also includes review questions (High Yield doesn't.) BRS is actually quite a long 400+ page book but easy to study from. If you know everything in BRS, you can't help but pass Neuro! I've used both BRS and High Yield extensively this semester to get me through.
I also have "Made Ridiculously Simple", which I've found virtually worthless. It's MUCH briefer than the other titles in the series and doesn't begin to cover what you need to know. As for the atlas, I just used Haines since it was the listed one- it's not great, but it's worked for me so far.
I usually start by reading High Yield to get an overview of what the next topic is about. Next I read the lecture notes and look over our lab manual. Then I use BRS to go through the details for each chapter and look up relevant structures in Haines as I go.
The key with Neuro is repetition, repetition and START early! The worst part is learning the brain stem levels, with the tracts a close second.
BTW Amazon has HYN in stock: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-5441605-6543142?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
 
Haine's Neuroanatomy
Clinical Neuro Made Ridiculously Simple
My syllabus (which was over 1000+ pages thick)
Toss in a little "Neuroscience PreTest" as well

I made it through 12 weeks of neuro w/o breaking a sweat.
 
OK, I'm in the UK so maybe not all of these book are available for you, but some are American so here goes:

Principles of Neural Science; Kandel & Schwartz
Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain; Bear, Connors & Paradiso
Neuroanatomy: An illustrated colour text. Can't remember the authors
Instant Notes Neuroscience.

Kandel and Schwartz was the bid daddy, NETB was great for introducing a subject as was instant notes, and teh illustrated colour text was what I used for anatomy mainly.

All can be got off Amazon UK, presume they can be found on the US Amazon too.
 
at sinai the recommended books were haines, purves and as a reference- kandel. we take neruo second year so maybe there is more path in our course than yours- so take my advice with a grain of salt. i primarily used our syllabus, but Kingsley's Fundamentals of Neuro (I think that is the title) is good- a new version is coming out next year. this book is more clinical than others. for atlases, i didn;t care for haines- esp b/c the index sucks. so i used- nolte. i had the old version, and the new version is supposed to be even better. a lot of people like nolte's text too. we are in the middle of our course right now so my advice counts for everything except sensory systems, psych, epilepsy and the limbic system. i have heard that brs behavioral science is good for psych. i have hy neuro anatomy but haven't used it much.
 
we had Snell as the required neuro textbook.

no one really used it that much

Most of us used HY or BRS neuroanatomy and Haines Atlas.

Also I used this Case studies in Neuroscience book. It helped for the Neuroscience shelf.

No need to get both. BRS is a bit more comprehensive and has more info and practice questions.
 
at my shcool we used the Young and Young neuro text. it was fantastic, providing clear presentations of the info. plus, there are questions at the end of each chapter.

because i had taken a neuro class in undergrad i have a copy of the kandel text. it is incredibly thorough and way too detailed to use everyday for class. but if you have a question that brs, etc cannot answer it is a good reference. your med library most likely has a copy on reserve.
 
at U of Arizona we used Nolte's HUMAN BRAIN text, study guide, and atlas. i am willing to bet it was required since he was the main instructor and course director:laugh: . i liked the study guide and atlas but didn't find the text very helpful. didn't use any board review books.

man am i glad neuro is over!
 
Originally posted by lattimer13


man am i glad neuro is over!


ditto!
 
Originally posted by lattimer13
at U of Arizona we used Nolte's HUMAN BRAIN text, study guide, and atlas. i am willing to bet it was required since he was the main instructor and course director:laugh: . i liked the study guide and atlas but didn't find the text very helpful. didn't use any board review books.

man am i glad neuro is over!

We use the Nolte text and atlas at my school also. I already own the text and atlas but was considering purchasing the study guide also. What makes the study guide so much better than the text?

I'm not really looking forward to taking neuroscience next semester.
 
the study guide does a good job of keeping things short and concise. i don't believe it's absolutely necessary, just for me it was much easier than reading through his text. keep in mind we got his notes for the entire semester too. it was mostly for material covered in the second half of the semester like neuronal receptive fields (which i still don't get) and the limbic system, thalamus and hypothalamus that i got lost about in his notes. so when i had problems with his notes i went straight to the study guide, and if i still had problems i went to the book. the study guide is meat and potatoes and has some review questions at the end of each chapter. plus all the stuff that he wants students to get out of the book is in each chapter and the chapters are only a few pages long.

i'm only a first year, but i found neuro to be toughest for me. i liked the stuff that medicine knows concretely about neuro; like the brainstem, spinal cord, tracts, and nuclei, but the stuff like that takes place in the neocortex (ie learning and memory, higher functions) that medicine doesn't really understand i found very frustrating. i have grown to hate the phrase "it is thought that..." it seems like lots of things so far in medicine are like this, but more so in neuro.
 
some M2's at my school suggested doing Neuroanatomy by Sidman and Sidman before the class starts. its a repetitive fill-in-the-blank blunt memorization kindof text, but they say its good for getting the basics down.
 
IMHO, if you really want to learn the material and have it stick (and believe me, most people in 3rd year forget the topic), you need a more in-depth manual than High-Yield type books. The best is:

Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases by Hal Blumenfield, MD PhD from Yale. $52.00.

Clearly written, tons of cases, pictures and tables galore, a review of physical exam techniques, but not too eggheady, so it is accessible for all non-neuro fans. In fact, it will make you a neuro fan. Good luck
 
Originally posted by japhy
at my shcool we used the Young and Young neuro text. it was fantastic, providing clear presentations of the info. plus, there are questions at the end of each chapter.

because i had taken a neuro class in undergrad i have a copy of the kandel text. it is incredibly thorough and way too detailed to use everyday for class. but if you have a question that brs, etc cannot answer it is a good reference. your med library most likely has a copy on reserve.

I almost felt like sending a thankyou letter to Young and Young after reading it... what a book. I also had Kandel Schwartz et al, but to be honest the tree that paid it's life for that book died in vain.

Also a caveat - My neuroanatomy prof thought there was something wrong in Young and Young. I *think* it was the positions of some tracts within the internal capsule... so follow Kandel over Young and Young for that one aspect.
 
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