Re: Looking for neurology information

Hi Chris,

I think it's terrific that you are interested in teaching yourself
neuroscience at such a young age. I wish I had done that when I was in
high school. I can understand your wish to stay away from textbooks,
but there are some good ones out there. Also, if you wish to continue
to study science when you're in college, you'll have to get used to
textbooks at some point. I'll mention a few that I've found helpful.
They might be a little bit difficult, but you are obviously very
bright, so I don't think they'll be too daunting for you.

The first one is not really a textbook, but it's jam-packed with lots
of useful neuroscience text. It's called THE HUMAN BRAIN COLORING
BOOK, by M.C. Diamond, A.B. Scheibel, and L.M. Elson. It's part of a
series of "coloring books." Some of the others in that series are: THE
PHYSIOLOGY COLORING BOOK and THE ANATOMY COLORING BOOK. You don't have
to color the pictures, but it might be helpful in some instances and,
as I said, the accompanying text is excellent. I'm not absolutely
certain, but I think the publisher is Barnes and Noble Books.

Another excellent book is NEUROBIOLOGY by Gordon Shepherd. I don't
know what edition it's in now, but you can easily check that online at
Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com.

The next one that I've found very  helpful is FUNDAMENTAL NEUROANATOMY
by Walle J.H. Nauta and Michael Feirtag.

You might also like to check out CELLULAR PHYSIOLOGY OF NERVE AND
MUSCLE by Gary G. Matthews.

As for pharmacology information (you mentioned you'd taken
medication), Stephen Stahl's book, ESSENTIAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY is one
of the best I've seen. While the text might be advanced for you now,
there are some wonderful diagrams that go with the text, and some of
them are kind of humorous. Again, I'm uncertain what edition that book
is in.

It might also be helpful for you to get ahold of a basic,
introductory, college level biology book (oops, sorry, but that would
be a textbook), and read the chapters devoted to the nervous system.
Often, at the end of those chapters, the author will list many useful
references. I know you were hoping to avoid textbooks, but with your
interests, it may not be possible to avoid them for long. The nice
thing about a basic introductory biology book is that it's a good
starting point, and the material is usually presented in a manner that
is easier to grasp. Some examples of good introductory biology books
are BIOLOGY by Helena Curtis and BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE by Keeton and
Gould. Actually, I don't know whether those are available anymore in
new editions, but you might be able to find them in the library.

By the way, you express yourself very well. You write better than many
adults I meet on message boards. I think you're off to a good start!