First published in 1981 by McGraw-Hill, Principles of Neural Science is an influential neurosciencetextbook edited by Columbia University professors Eric R. Kandel, James H. Schwartz, and Thomas M. Jessell. The original edition was 468 pages; now on the sixth edition, the book has grown to 1646 pages. The second edition was published in 1985, third in 1991, fourth in 2000. The fifth was published on October 26, 2012 and included Steven A. Siegelbaum and A.J. Hudspeth as editors.[1] The sixth and latest edition was published on March 8, 2021.[2]
Schwartz was a professor of physiology, cellular biophysics, neurology, and psychiatry at Columbia University.
Jessell became an editor of the book starting from the third edition. He was a professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Columbia University, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Hudspeth is a professor of sensory neuroscience at Rockefeller University. He is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Siegelbaum is Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Contributors
Including the editors—all of whom also contributed to individual chapters in the book—there are a total of 45 authors of this text. Included among them are several notable researchers and physicians. Several authors are also highly decorated scientists, including Nobel laureateLinda B. Buck and renowned neurophysiologist Roger M. Enoka.
Content
Principles of Neural Science is often assigned as a textbook for many undergraduate and graduate/medical neuroscience and neurobiology courses. The book attempts to at least introduce every aspect of our most modern understanding of the brain. The sixth edition is divided into sixty-four chapters, organized into nine parts:
