埃里克·坎德尔（Eric R.Kandel），1929年出生于奥地利的维也纳，1956年毕业于美国纽约大学，获医学博士学位。曾长期担任哥伦比亚大学生物化学与分子生物学系教授、霍华德·休斯医学研究中心资深研究员，2022年荣休。因在记忆存储的神经机制研究中做出的重大贡献，于2000年获得诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。

适读人群 ：神经科学领域高年级本科生、研究生、研究者。
诺贝尔奖得主坎德尔领衔主编，多位神经科学泰斗级人物共同编著，被业内誉为“神经科学圣经”“神经科学教科书金标准”，是神经科学领域的权WEI知识库。历经十年，更新到第6版。
随书附赠8GB U盘，内含全书近千张彩图。

As in previous editions, the goal of this sixth edition of Principles of Neural Science is to provide readers with insight into how genes, molecules, neurons, and the circuits they form give rise to behavior. With the exponential growth in neuroscience research over the 40 years since the first edition of this book, an increasing challenge is to provide a comprehensive overview of the field while remaining true to the original goal of the first edition, which is to elevate imparting basic principles over detailed encyclopedic knowledge.

Some of the greatest successes in brain science over the past 75 years have been the elucidation of the cell biological and electrophysiological functions of nerve cells, from the initial studies of Hodgkin, Huxley, and Katz on the action potential and synaptic transmission to our modern understanding of the genetic and molecular biophysical bases of these fundamental processes. The first three parts of this book delineate these remarkable achievements.

The first six chapters in Part I provide an overview of the broad themes of neural science, including the basic anatomical organization of the nervous system and the genetic bases of nervous system function and behavior. We have added a new chapter (Chapter 5) to introduce the principles by which neurons participate in neural circuits that perform specific computations of behavioral relevance. We conclude by considering how application of modern imaging techniques to the human brain provides a bridge between neuroscience and psychology. The next two parts of the book focus on the basic properties of nerve cells, including the generation and conduction of the action potential (Part II) and the electrophysiological and molecular mechanisms of synaptic transmission (Part III).

We then consider how the activity of neurons in the peripheral and central nervous systems gives rise to sensation and movement. In Part IV, we discuss the various aspects of sensory perception, including how information from the primary organs of sensation is transmitted to the central nervous system and how it Preface is processed there by successive brain regions to generate a sensory percept. In Part V, we consider the neural mechanisms underlying movement, beginning with an overview of the field that is followed by a treatment ranging from the properties of skeletal muscle fibers to an analysis of how motor commands issued by the spinal cord are derived from activity in motor cortex and cerebellum. We include a new treatment that addresses how the basal ganglia regulate the selection of motor actions and instantiate reinforcement learning (Chapter 38).

In the latter parts of the book, we turn to higherlevel cognitive processes, beginning in Part VI with a discussion of the neural mechanisms by which subcortical areas mediate homeostatic control mechanisms, emotions, and motivation, and the influence of these processes on cortical cognitive operations, such as feelings, decision-making, and attention. We then consider the development of the nervous system in Part VII, from early embryonic differentiation and the initial establishment of synaptic connections, to their experience-dependent refinement, to the replacement of neurons lost to injury or disease. Because learning and memory can be seen as a continuation of synaptic development, we next consider memory, together with language, and include a new chapter on decisionmaking and consciousness (Chapter 56) in Part VIII.

Finally, in Part IX, we consider the neural mechanisms underlying diseases of the nervous system.

Since the last edition of this book, the field of neuroscience has continued to rapidly evolve, which is reflected in changes in this edition. The continued development of new electrophysiological and light microscopic–based imaging technologies has enabled the simultaneous recording of the activity of large populations of neurons in awake behaving animals. These large data sets have given rise to new computational and theoretical approaches to gain insight into how the activity of

Part I
Overall Perspective
Part II
Cell and Molecular Biology of Cells of the Nervous System
Part III
Synaptic Transmission
Part IV
Perception
Part V
Movement
Part VI
The Biology of Emotion, Motivation, and Homeostasis
Part VII
Development and the Emergence of Behavior
Part VIII
Learning, Memory, Language and Cognition
Part VIII
Learning, Memory, Language and Cognition