What goes wrong in the nervous system and what can be done — degeneration, pain, neuropharmacology and rehabilitation.
10 topics · 20 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
Ramachandran & Blakeslee · 1998
Uses unusual neurological cases, especially phantom limb pain, to argue that the brain actively constructs the body it perceives rather than…
+2 more at this level
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Brain-Computer Interfaces for Communication and Control
Wolpaw, Birbaumer, McFarland, Pfurtscheller & Vaughan · 2002
Surveys the signals, algorithms and applications available for translating brain activity directly into device control, defining the field's…
+4 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
The Occurrence, Distribution and Physiological Role of Catecholamines in the Nervous System
Arvid Carlsson · 1959
Establishes the distribution and physiological role of dopamine and other catecholamines in the mammalian nervous system, laying the groundwork for…
+11 more at this level
12 of 20 works
Ramachandran & Blakeslee
Uses unusual neurological cases, especially phantom limb pain, to argue that the brain actively constructs the body it perceives rather than passively reporting sensation from it.
Michael S. Gazzaniga
Argues that many bioethical questions raised by neuroscience — free will, moral responsibility, brain death — are old philosophical problems that neuroscience reframes rather than solves for the first time.
Stafstrom & Carmant
Introduces seizure and epilepsy classification, mechanisms and terminology for readers without a clinical neurology background.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Wolpaw, Birbaumer, McFarland, Pfurtscheller & Vaughan
Surveys the signals, algorithms and applications available for translating brain activity directly into device control, defining the field's terminology and evaluation standards.
Helen E. Scharfman
Surveys the cellular and network changes that turn a normal circuit into one prone to seizures, from ion channel mutations to network reorganisation after injury.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Kleim & Jones
Sets out ten principles of experience-dependent plasticity — such as specificity, repetition and intensity — as a framework for designing rehabilitation after brain damage.
Randolph J. Nudo
Reviews how the brain reorganises after injury and argues that rehabilitation-driven use of the affected limb or function actively shapes that reorganisation rather than merely accompanying it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Volkow, Koob & McLellan
Argues that addiction is best understood as a disease of disrupted decision-making and reward circuitry rather than a moral failing, reviewing the neurobiological evidence for the brain disease model.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Arvid Carlsson
Establishes the distribution and physiological role of dopamine and other catecholamines in the mammalian nervous system, laying the groundwork for dopamine-based theories of movement and psychiatric disorders.
Melzack & Wall
Proposes that a spinal 'gate' modulated by both peripheral input and descending brain signals determines whether pain signals reach conscious perception, replacing simple pain-pathway models.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Hardy & Higgins
Proposes that deposition of amyloid beta protein is the initiating event in Alzheimer's disease, with neurofibrillary tangles, cell loss and dementia following as downstream consequences.
Amir et al.
Identifies mutations in the MECP2 gene as the cause of Rett syndrome, linking a specific epigenetic regulator to a defined neurodevelopmental disorder.