The instruments — and their well-documented limitations.
10 topics · 16 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Analyzing Neural Time Series Data: Theory and Practice
Michael X. Cohen · 2014
Teaches the statistical and signal-processing methods for extracting time-frequency information from EEG and MEG data, aimed at researchers with no…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
The Legacy of Patient H.M. for Neuroscience
Larry R. Squire · 2009
Reviews four decades of findings from patient H.M., arguing his case established that memory is a distinct cerebral function separable from…
+1 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
A Quantitative Description of Membrane Current and Its Application to Conduction and Excitation in Nerve
Hodgkin & Huxley · 1952
Derives a quantitative model of sodium and potassium conductance that reproduces the shape and propagation of the nerve action potential from…
+12 more at this level
12 of 16 works
Michael X. Cohen
Teaches the statistical and signal-processing methods for extracting time-frequency information from EEG and MEG data, aimed at researchers with no prior background in the maths.
Larry R. Squire
Reviews four decades of findings from patient H.M., arguing his case established that memory is a distinct cerebral function separable from perception, language and general intelligence.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Karl Deisseroth
Introduces the logic and practical toolkit of optogenetics to a general scientific readership, explaining how light-gated ion channels let researchers control genetically defined neurons.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Hodgkin & Huxley
Derives a quantitative model of sodium and potassium conductance that reproduces the shape and propagation of the nerve action potential from voltage-clamp data alone.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Scoville & Milner
Documents the profound anterograde amnesia following bilateral medial temporal lobe removal in patient H.M., establishing the hippocampus's necessity for forming new declarative memories.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Phelps, Hoffman, Mullani & Ter-Pogossian
Describes the annihilation-coincidence detection method for transaxial tomographic reconstruction that became the technical basis of positron emission tomography.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Grynkiewicz, Poenie & Tsien
Introduces a family of fluorescent calcium indicators with improved selectivity and quantitative calibration, the chemistry underlying modern calcium imaging.
Barker, Jalinous & Freeston
Demonstrates that a brief magnetic field pulse delivered outside the skull can non-invasively stimulate the human motor cortex, founding transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Ogawa, Lee, Kay & Tank
Demonstrates that deoxyhemoglobin acts as an endogenous contrast agent in MRI, the blood-oxygenation-dependent effect that became the basis of functional brain imaging.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Kwong et al.
Shows that MRI can detect localised signal changes in human visual cortex during simple sensory stimulation without any injected contrast agent, the first demonstration of functional MRI in humans.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Hämäläinen et al.
Surveys the physics, instrumentation and clinical and cognitive applications of magnetoencephalography, establishing it as the reference account of the method.
Nitsche & Paulus
Shows that weak transcranial direct current applied to motor cortex produces polarity-dependent, lasting changes in cortical excitability, founding modern tDCS research.
link checked 17 Sept 2026