Books and Articles for
High School Students and Beyond

On-line Books/Articles Off-line Articles Videos

On-line Books, Magazine Articles and "Real Audio"


  1. Australian Broadcasting Company - show transcripts
    1. Brain Plasticity
    2. Left-handedness in the elderly
    3. Parkinson's Disease
    4. Sleep
    5. Super Tasters- Taste, the Mind and Nutrition
    6. Synesthesia
    7. Narcolepsy, sleep-walking, sleep-talking, and even murder while you sleep
    8. Dr. Oliver Sacks
    9. Hypnosis and Posthypnotic Suggestions
    10. What is so unique about us humans?

  2. Brain Briefings
     Short explanations of various topics from the Society for Neuroscience.

  3. Dana Foundation Publication Archive
    1. Brainwork
    2. Brain Connections
    3. Progress Report
    4. Radio and Television Transcripts
    5. "The Brain in the News"

  4. Discover Magazine
    1. The Skinny On...
      1. Falling Asleep Twitches
      2. Strange Sneezing Situations
      3. The Evil Eye
      4. Deaf People's Inner Voice

  5. Fires of Pain
    Burn Pain and Its Treatment

  6. Manhattan Project of the Mind (J. Barrett)
    An article focusing on brain imaging research.

  7. NIH Radio News Service - Audio Files

  8. National Public Radio "RealAudio" - Talk of the Nation/Science Friday
    1. Persistent Vegetative State - March 25, 2005
    2. Treating Depression - February 11, 2005
    3. Making False Memories - February 4, 2005
    4. Stem Cells and Parkinson's - January 7, 2005
    5. Sensing Fear - December 17, 2004
    6. Mind Wide Open - November 26, 2004
    7. Making Memories - September 24, 2004
    8. Robert Sapolsky and Stress - September 10, 2004
    9. Monkey Brains and Prostethics - July 9, 2004
    10. Mad Cow Disease Update / Eric Kandel - July 2, 2004
    11. Alzheimer's Update - July 2, 2004
    12. Mental Illness in Children - June 25, 2004
    13. Leptin and the Brain - April 2, 2004
    14. Mind Wide Open - March 12, 2004
    15. New Mad Cow Prion - February 20, 2004
    16. Animal Communication - January 16, 2004
    17. Mad Cow Disease Update - January 9, 2004
    18. Depression - December 19, 2003
    19. Stem Cells - November 7, 2003
    20. Music and the Brain - May 9, 2003
    21. Genetics and Behavior - May 2, 2003
    22. Gulf War Illnesses - March 14, 2003
    23. Autism - January 24, 2003
    24. Spinal Cord Recovery - December 13, 2002
    25. Bipolar Disorder in Children - October 11, 2002
    26. Alzheimer's Disease - August 16, 2002
    27. Stem Cells - June 21, 2002
    28. Synaptic Self - March 29, 2002
    29. Chronobiology - December 2001
    30. Sport Psychology - August 2000
    31. Alzheimer's Disease - July 2000
    32. Alzheimer's Disease Update - July 2001
    33. Mad Cow Disease - May 2000
    34. Mad Cow Disease - January 2001
    35. Smell - March 2000
    36. Medicating Preschoolers/ADHD - March 2000
    37. Monkey Math? - January 2000

  9. On The Brain
    From Harvard Medical School. A series of short articles about the brain and nervous system.

  10. Online Newshour
    1. Research on Alzheimer's disease
    2. Unscrambling Dyslexia
    3. Child's Play
    4. A New Breakthrough in Huntington's Disease
    5. Hearing Clearly
    6. Stroke Relief

  11. The Harvard Brain - from Harvard Undergraduate Society for Neuroscience

  12. NIH Office of Science Education
    1. Prions: Puzzling Infectious Proteins
    2. Emotions and Disease
    3. Help for Cuckoo Clocks - Melatonin
    4. Images of Dyslexia
    5. Video Game Epilepsy
    6. Spinal Cord Injury Home Page
    7. Insights from a Broken Brain

  13. Dr. William H. Calvin - a professor at the Univ. of Washington has many chapters from his books and magazine articles about the nervous system here on his site..or go directly to them at:
    1. The Cerebral Code
    2. Conversations with Neil's Brain
    3. The Emergence of Intelligence - from Scientific American, 271(4):100-107, October 1994.
    4. How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence, Then and Now
    5. The Ascent of Mind
    6. The Cerebral Symphony
    7. The Throwing Madonna

  14. PBS Specials
    1. Close to Home - Moyers on Addiction
    2. Inside the Animal Mind
    3. Animal Einsteins - transcripts

  15. Science News Online
    1. Grown-Up Monkey Brains Get Growing
    2. Battling Evolution to Regrow Nerves
    3. Brains show signs of two bilingual roads
    4. Brain doubles up on marijuana like agents
    5. Bridging the Brain Gap
    6. Chilled Brains - Hibernating animals may hold clues to novel stroke treatments
    7. Mad Cow Disease, Human Illness Tied
    8. Magnesium May Stave off Cerebral Palsy
    9. Napless cats awaken interest in adenosine
    10. Patients Savor this Brain Disorder
    11. Prescription-strength chocolate
    12. Remembrance of Things False

  16. Why Files
    1. Can Birds Learn in their Sleep?
    2. Brains in Your Gut?
    3. Brain Cancer
    4. Chemical Reaction - Chemical Catastrophes
    5. Emotions and Health
    6. Fatigue and Human Error
    7. How an Eye Works
    8. Mad Cow Disease
    9. Minding the Body - Can emotions affect health?
    10. Repairing the Spinal Cord
    11. Science of Love
    12. Sounds of Language
    13. Spinal Cord Injury and Recovery
    14. Sports Psychology - how the mind helps the body
    15. Mad Cow Disease
    16. Minding the Body
    17. Your Brain on Nicotine
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Off-line Magazine Articles - Recent and/or Easy to Find
  1. Science and Medicine
    Bart G.J. Knols and Jocelign Meijerink, Odors Influence Mosquito Behavior, in Science and Medicine, September/October, pp. 56-63, 1997.

  2. Natural History
    The Nature of Learning, in Natural History, September, 1997, pp. 42-65. A collection of short articles about how humans and other animals learn.

  3. Newsweek Magazine

    1. Fixing the Brain
    2. Sharon Begley, How to Build a Baby's Brain, in Newsweek Special Issue, Spring/Summer 1997, pp. 28-32. [also see pp. 12-15 and pp. 38-39 of the same issue.] Article about brain development.
    3. Sharon Begley, Memories are made of..., in Newsweek, November 4, 1996, pp. 68. Article about memory improvement by nicotine.
    4. Sharon Begley, To Stand and Raise a Glass, in Newsweek, July 1, 1996, p. 52-55. Article about spinal cord injury.
    5. Sharon Begley, Jagged Little Pill, in Newsweek, August 18, 1997, p. 66. - Article about the history of aspirin
    6. Geoffrey Cowley, The President's Got a New Aid, in Newsweek, October 13, 1997, p. 43 - President Clinton's new hearing aid.
    7. Geoffrey Cowley, Is There a Sixth Sense?, in Newsweek, October 13, 1997, p. 67. - report on the vomeronasal organ
    8. Geoffrey Cowley and Anne Underwood, A Little Help from Serotonin, in Newsweek, Dec. 29, 1997-Jan. 5, 1998, pp. 78-81.
    9. Claudia Kalb, Our Embattled Ears, in Newsweek, August 25, 1997, pp. 75-76. - hearing loss and how to protect your hearing
    10. Carla Koehl, Happier Days Ahead? The Future of Mind Drugs, in Newsweek, April 21, 1997, p. 13.
    11. Mark Starr, Arms like lead! Hit 'em in the head, in Newsweek, December 1, 1997, pp. 70-71. Concussion crisis in football.
    12. Brad Stone, Zapping the Eye, in Newsweek, June 2, 1997, pp. 80-81. New eye surgery using a laser.
    13. Pat Wingert and Anne Underwood, Hey-Look Out, World, Here I Come, in Newsweek Special Issue, Spring/Summer 1997, pp. 12-15. Article about brain development.

  4. Scientific American
    1. David J. Chalmers, The Puzzle of Conscious Experience, in Scientific American, December 1995, , vol. 273 (6), pp. 80-86.
    2. Dora Y. Ho and Robert M. Sapolsky, Gene Therapy for the Nervous System, in Scientific American, June 1997, pp. 116-120.

  5. National Geographic
    1. Boyd Gibbons, The Intimate Sense of Smell, in National Geographic Magazine, September 1986, vol. 170, no. 3, pp. 324-361.
    2. Boyd Gibbons, Alcohol. The Legal Drug, in National Geographic Magazine, February 1992, vol. 181, no. 2, pp. 3-35.
    3. Michael E. Long, The Sense of Sight, in National Geographic Magazine, November 1992, vol. 182, no. 5, pp. 3-41.
    4. Paul D. Martin, Messengers to the Brain, National Geographic Society Press, Washington, D.C., 1985, p. 104.
    5. Mark W. Moffett, Poison-dart Frogs. Lurid and Lethal, National Geographic Magazine, May 1995, vol. 187, vol. 187, no. 5, pp. 98-111.
    6. George Steinmetz, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, in National Geographic Magazine, February 1992, vol. 181, no. 2, pp. 36-39.
    7. Joel L. Swerdlow, Quiet Miracles of the Brain, in National Geographic Magazine, June 1995 Issue, vol. 187, no. 6, pp. 2-41.
    8. Rick Weiss, Aging: New Answers to Old Questions, in National Geographic Magazine, November 1997, pp. 2-31, 1997.

  6. Garry Hamilton, What is this octopus thinking?, in New Scientist, June 7, 1997, pp. 30-35.

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Overviews of the Nervous System


  1. Isaac Asimov, How Did We Find Out About The Brain?, Walker and Co., New York, 1987, 61 pages.

  2. Susan L. Barrett, It's All in Your Head, Free Spirit Publishing, Minneapolis, 1992, 151 pages.

  3. Melvin Berger, Exploring the Mind and Brain, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1983, 117 pages.

  4. Faith Hickman Brynie, 101 Questions Your Brain Has Asked Itself But Couldn't Answer Until Now, Millbrook Press, Brookfield, 1998, 176 pages.

  5. Rita Carter, Mapping the Mind, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1998, 224 pages.

  6. Roberta Conlan (editor), States of Mind: New Discoveries About How Our Brains Make Us Who We Are, New York, Dana Press, 1999, 214 pages.

  7. Joel Davis, Mapping the Mind. The Secrets of the Human Brain and How It Works, Birch Lane Press, Secaucus, 1997, 289 pages.

  8. Stanislas Dehaene, The Number Sense. How the Mind Creates Mathematics, Oxford University Press, 1997, 274 pages.

  9. Marian C. Diamond, Arnold B. Scheibel, Lawrence M. Elson, The Human Brain Coloring Book, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1985, 301 pages.

  10. Michael S. Gazzaniga, The Social Brain, BasicBooks, Inc., New York, 1985, 219 pages.

  11. Susan A. Greenfield, The Human Brain, BasicBooks, New York, 1997, 160 pages.

  12. Susan A. Greenfield, The Human Mind Explained, Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1996, 192 pages. An EXCELLENT guide to the brain with plenty of pictures.

  13. Robert D. Griffin, The Biology Coloring Book, Harper Collins, New York, 1986, 256 pages.

  14. Wynn Kapit and Lawrence M. Elson, The Anatomy Coloring Book, Harper Collins, New York, 1993, 352 pages.

  15. Harold L. Klawans, Why Michael Couldn't Hit, and Other Tales of the Neurology of Sports, W.H. Freeman, New York, 1996, 308 pages.

  16. Kenneth A. Klivington, The Science of the Mind, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1989, 239 pages.

  17. Ronald Kotulak, Inside the Brain, Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, 1996.

  18. Elaine N. Marieb, The A&P Coloring Workbook, A Complete Study Guide, 3rd edition, Benjamin/Cummings.

  19. John McCrone, The Ape That Spoke. Language and the Evolution of the Human Mind, William Morrow and Company, New York, 1991, 288 pages.

  20. D. Michael McKeough, Coloring Review of Neuroscience, 2nd edition, Little, Brain and Co., 1995.

  21. Paul Nordstrom August, The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs, Series 2, Brain Function, Chelsea House Publ., New York, 1988, 123 pages.

  22. Anne D. Novitt-Moreno, How Your Brain Works, Ziff-Davis Press, Emeryville, 1995, 170 pages.

  23. Tabitha M. Powledge, Your Brain: How You Got It and How it Works, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1994, 210 pages.

  24. Robert Ornstein and Richard F. Thompson, The Amazing Brain, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1984, 182 pages.

  25. J. Lawrence Pool, Nature's Masterpiece. The Brain and How it Works, Walker and Co., New York, 1987, 144 pages.

  26. Society for Neuroscience
    1. Brain Briefings - A great resource with short discussion of topics including Epilepsy and GABA, The Roots of ALS, Alzheimer's Abnormalities, The Retinoblastoma Gene, Birth Defects, Multiple Sclerosis, The Prefrontal Cortex and Schizophrenia, Huntington's Disease Genetics, Parkinson's and Dopamine, The Senses, Sleep, Brain Imaging, Development, Brain Mechanisms (Serotonin and Judgment, The Brain's Stash, Cell Suicide, Oxidative Stress and Brain Disorders, The Opiate Receptor, Neurotrophic Factors, NMDA Receptor Blockers, Biological Clocks)
    2. Brain Facts. A Primer on the Brain and Nervous System, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, D.C., 1993, 52 pages.
    3. Brain Concepts - short pamphlets on Brain Development, Drugs, Genes and the Brain, How the Brain Ages, Vision, Sleep, Stress and the Brain, Pain. ($0.50/each)

  27. V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee, Phantoms in the Brain : Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, William Morrow and Company, New York, 1998, 320 pages.

  28. Jean Stine and Camden Benares, It's All in Your Head, Prentice Hall, New York, 1994, 248 pages.

  29. Time/Life Books, How Things Work - The Brain, Time/Life Books, Alexandria, 1990.

  30. Carol Turkington, The Brain Encyclopedia, Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1995, 316 pages.

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Specific Areas of the Nervous System


  1. John Downer, Supersense. Perception in the Animal World, Holt and Co., New York, 1988, 160 pages.

  2. Larry Kettelkamp, Tricks of Eye and Mind, William Morrow and Co., New York, 1974, 127 pages.

  3. Jillyn Smith, Senses & Sensibilities, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1989, 230 pages.

  4. William H. Calvin and George A. Ojemann, Conversations with Neil's Brain: The Neural Nature of Thought and Language, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, 1995, 352 pages

  5. William H. Calvin and George A. Ojemann, Inside the Brain, New American Library, New York, 1980, 226 pages.

  6. Richard K. Cooley and C.H. Vanderwolf, The Sheep Brain; A basic guide, A.J. Kirby, Co., London, Ontario, Canada, 1979, 34 pages.

  7. Stephen J. DeArmond, Madeline M. Fusco and Maynard M. Dewey, Structure of the Human Brain. A Photographic Atlas, Oxford University Press, New York, 1976, 186 pages.

  8. Eric R. Kandel, James H. Schwartz and Thomas M. Jessel, Principles of Neural Science, Elsevier, New York, 1991, 1135 pages. (This textbook is a comprehensive overview of the whole field of neuroscience and is used in many university graduate and undergraduate courses)

  9. M.B. Macmillan, A wonderful journey through skull and brains: the travels of Mr. Gage's tamping iron, Brain and Cognition, vol. 5, pp. 67-107, 1986. (History and analysis of the brain injury sustained by Mr. Phineas Gage)

  10. Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden, Ballantine Books, New York, 1977, 271 pages.

  11. BRAINBOOKS - An online bookstore specializing in neuroscience books (run by E.J. Hammond)

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Neuroscience Videos for Students and Teachers

  1. Decade of the Brain Tapes

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For more articles, see Neuroscience In The News.

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