Animal Electricity: How We Learned That the Body and Brain Are Electric Machines
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.22 (860 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0674736818 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-03-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
very good book with solid science Sam Torrisi if you do electrophysiology this would be a must read in your beginning years. if you've taken neuroscience 101 it should be an enjoyable read too. if you're a total layperson on the subject it'll probably be tough going sometimes unless you already have some experience with chemistry and circuit building. i'm a neurosci
The discussion ranges from the pre-Renaissance notion of animal spirits and Galvani’s eighteenth-century discovery of animal electricity, to modern insights into how electrical activity produces learning and how electrical signals in the cortex can be used to connect the brains of paralyzed individuals to limbs or prosthetic devices. Concentration gradients of sodium and potassium cause these ions to flow in and out of cells by way of protein channels, creating tiny voltages across the cell membrane. Slight imbalances of electric charge across cell membranes result in sensation, movement, awareness, and thinkingnearly everything we associate with being alive. Campenot provides the necessary scientific background to make the book highly accessible for general readers while conveying much about the process of scientific discovery.. The cellular mechanisms that switch these ion currents on and off drive all the functions associated with animal nervous systems, from nerve impulses and heartbeats to the 600-volt shocks produced by electric eels.Campenot’s examination of the nervous system is presented in the context of ideas as they evolved in the past, as well as today’s research and its future implications. Like all cellular organisms, humans
Campenot's writing is clear and effective and conveys the excitement of scientific discovery and the fascinating complexity of the living organism. (Simon Ings New Scientist 2016-03-12)Dr. (Dale Purves, M.D., Geller Professor of Neurobiology, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences) . This is a good book. Its mix of schoolroom electricity and sophisticated cell biology is highly eccentric but this, I think, speaks much in Campenot’s favor. (Jonathan Dostrovsky, Department of Physiology and Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto)A beautifully written, authoritative, and thoroughly engaging account of the electrical properties of nerve cells and what they acco
. Robert B. Campenot is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Alberta