Re: Looking for neurology information

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 05:28:53 GMT, "Kent H." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

>Chris, I spend a lot of time reading medical literature, including some
>neuroscience. I agree fully with you that there is nothing more boring
>than reading a textbook. Textbook writers, though scolarly, tend to be
>very conservative, and geezers, if not in physical age, certainly in
>emotional age. I search and read the National Libary of Medicine a lot
>when I want to persue a medical answer to a question, and I enjoy it. 
>That URL is:
>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search&DB=PubMed, a
>search on Methylphenidate reveals some 3000+ articles published about
>that drug. To master all of this, you need a didactic organized,
>classroom series of events, i.e. a medical education. However you won't
>lose anything and you might gain a lot by plunging ahead on your own
>right now.
>If you want to e-mail me directly about this, go ahead. If you want to
>respond on either of these NGs go ahead.
>Good Luck, to probably one of the younger premeds around.
>Kent

You are right about the lack of gripping narrative, character
development, or plot line in university texts.  However, the purpose
is to learn about the subject matter, not to be entertained.  The
stuff you get from the Pub Med search you describe is not something I
could recommend to a beginner.  Third and fourth year university
students have great difficulty reading those papers even after an
introductory course and, say, one course in physiology or
neurobiology.  The molecular and biophysical neurobiology papers are
particularly dense.  Of course, students at this level are required to
read the stuff, but the truth is they understand little of what the
read.

Then, again, I am one of those geezers you mention, both in physical
and emotional age.  And, although I claim to be ultraliberal in
political or social things, you are also probably correct about my
intellectual conservatism.