Quantitative Neurophysiology

Quantitative Neurophysiology is supplementary text for a junior or senior level course in neuroengineering. It may also serve as an quick-start for graduate students in engineering, physics or neuroscience as well as for faculty interested in becoming familiar with the basics of quantitative neuroscience. The first chapter is a review of the structure of the neuron and anatomy of the brain. Chapters 2-6 derive the theory of active and passive membranes, electrical propagation in axons and dendrites and the dynamics of the synapse. Chapter 7 is an introduction to modeling networks of neurons and artificial neural networks. Chapter 8 and 9 address the recording and decoding of extracellular potentials. The final chapter has descriptions of a number of more advanced or new topics in neuroengineering. Throughout the text, vocabulary is introduced which will enable students to read more advanced literature and communicate with other scientists and engineers working in the neurosciences. Numerical methods are outlined so students with programming knowledge can implement the models presented in the text. Analogies are used to clarify topics and reinforce key concepts. Finally, homework and simulation problems are available at the end of each chapter.