From Neuron to Brain

Citation

Martin, A. R., Brown, D. A., Diamond, M. E., Cattaneo, A., & De-Miguel, F. F. (2021). From Neuron to Brain (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book has thirty chapters in seven parts, followed by four appendices. Its publisher describes an emphasis on experiments (electrical recordings, molecular and cellular techniques and behavioural studies) and on following lines of research from the first idea to work in laboratories and clinics today.

Part I (Chapters 1–3): Principles of Signaling and Organization; Signaling in the Visual System; Functional Architecture of the Visual Cortex

The opening part introduces how the nervous system signals and is organized, and does so through the visual system, from signalling in the early visual pathway to the architecture of visual cortex.

Part II (Chapters 4–10): Ion Channels and Signaling; Structure of Ion Channels; Ionic Basis of the Resting Potential; Ionic Basis of the Action Potential; Electrical Signaling in Neurons; Ion Transport across Cell Membranes; Properties and Functions of Neuroglial Cells

The biophysical core. Channels, the ionic origin of the resting and action potentials, electrical signalling within neurons, membrane transport and the properties of glial cells are taken in that order.

Part III (Chapters 11–18): Mechanisms of Direct Synaptic Transmission; Indirect Mechanisms of Synaptic Transmission; Release of Neurotransmitters at Synapses; Neurotransmitters in the Central Nervous System; Transmitter Synthesis, Storage, Transport, and Inactivation; Synaptic Plasticity; The Molecular and Cellular Biology of Synaptic Plasticity; Mechanisms of Extrasynaptic Transmission

Communication between cells. Direct (channel-mediated) and indirect (second-messenger) transmission come first, then transmitter release, the transmitters of the central nervous system and their metabolism, and finally plasticity at synapses (Chapter 16, with its molecular and cellular biology in Chapter 17), and transmission that acts beyond the synapse (Chapter 18).

Part IV (Chapters 19–20): Autonomic Nervous System; Walking, Flying, and Swimming: Cellular Mechanisms of Sensory-motor Behavior in Invertebrates

Integrative mechanisms: the autonomic nervous system, and the cellular basis of rhythmic and sensory-motor behaviour in invertebrates.

Part V (Chapters 21–26): Sensory Transduction; Transduction and Transmission in the Retina; Touch, Pain, and Texture Sensation; Auditory and Vestibular Sensation; Constructing Perception; Initiation and Control of Coordinated Muscular Movements

Sensation and movement: how receptors transduce stimuli, how the retina, the somatosensory system and the auditory and vestibular systems handle them, how perception is constructed, and how coordinated movement is initiated and controlled.

Part VI (Chapters 27–29): Development of the Nervous System; Critical Periods in Sensory Systems; Regeneration and Repair of Synaptic Connections after Injury

Development, the critical periods in which experience shapes sensory systems, and regeneration after injury.

Part VII (Chapter 30) and appendices: Open Questions

A closing chapter on open questions. The appendices cover current flow in electrical circuits, metabolic pathways for low-molecular-weight transmitters, structures and pathways of the brain, and molecular tools in neurobiology.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–10: signalling and electrical properties

• Ion channels: Chapters 4–5 treat channels as the molecules that generate electrical signals, in terms of both their function and their structure.
• Resting and action potentials: Chapters 6–7 are devoted to their ionic basis.
• Neuroglia: Chapter 10 treats the properties and functions of glial cells alongside neurons.

Chapters 11–18: synapses

• Direct and indirect synaptic transmission: two distinct mechanisms, covered in Chapters 11 and 12.
• Synaptic plasticity: change at synapses, covered in Chapter 16 and again in Chapter 17 as its molecular and cellular biology.
• Extrasynaptic transmission: signalling that is not confined to the synaptic cleft (Chapter 18).

Chapters 19–30: systems and development

• Sensory transduction: the conversion of stimuli into neural signals (Chapter 21).
• Constructing perception: how sensory signals are assembled into percepts (Chapter 25).
• Critical periods: stages in which sensory systems depend on experience for normal development (Chapter 28).

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Experimental approach. The publisher stresses recordings, molecular and cellular methods and behavioural studies, and the contents, which pair channel structure with ionic mechanisms and plasticity with its molecular biology, are consistent with that aim.
• Cell-to-system coverage in one volume. The sequence runs from channels and potentials through synapses to sensation, movement, development and regeneration, so cellular and systems neuroscience are connected within a single narrative.
• A deliberate single voice. John Nicholls, who wrote the foreword and chose the current authors, has said in a SISSA feature that the book was always meant to be readable and to read as if written by one author, with every author working on every chapter.
• Useful appendices. Appendix A on current flow in electrical circuits and Appendix D on molecular tools support readers who meet the biophysics or the techniques for the first time.

Limitations

• Not comprehensive by design. Nicholls describes the book as never intended to be an everything-you-need-to-know text; it is selective, and a course needing broad coverage of clinical or cognitive topics will need a second book.
• Weight on the cellular side. Of thirty chapters, seven in Part II and eight in Part III treat membranes and synapses, while systems topics such as the visual system recur in Part I and Part V but no chapter title in the contents is devoted to language or emotion.
• Bibliographic inconsistencies. Retail and catalogue listings give different page counts for this edition, so check the printing in hand when using chapter pointers.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the neuroscience books on this site, From Neuron to Brain is a cellular-first, experiment-driven text. Foundations of Neuroscience (a free introduction) and Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain (an introductory text built around behaviour, with clinical examples) are gentler first courses; Purves's Neuroscience is a comprehensive text that moves from single neurons through sensory and motor systems to cognition. Principles of Neurobiology also traces the experiments behind each principle, and adds development, circuits, disease and evolution, so it is the nearest alternative in approach. Theoretical Neuroscience (Dayan and Abbott) is a graduate text on mathematical models and is a different kind of book.

A reasonable path is to read an introductory book first, use this one for the biophysics and synaptic physiology in depth, and add Purves or Principles of Neurobiology for broader systems and cognitive coverage.

How to Use This Book

It suits students who already have introductory neuroscience or physiology and basic cell biology, chemistry and physics, and who want to see how the main findings were established. The publisher lists undergraduate, graduate and medical courses as the audience.

• Core: Parts II and III (Chapters 4–18) are the centre of the book. Read Chapters 4–8 first, since the later synaptic chapters depend on channels and potentials, and use Appendix A if circuit ideas are unfamiliar.
• Systems selection: from Part V choose the senses a course covers (Chapters 21–25) and Chapter 26 for movement. Part I works as an early orientation through the visual system and can be returned to after Part II.
• Optional or later: the invertebrate behaviour chapter (20), the autonomic nervous system (19), Part VI on development and regeneration, and the final chapter on open questions.
• Method: when a chapter describes an experiment, sketch the recording or manipulation and the result before reading the interpretation; this is the way the book is built to be read.