Principles of Neurobiology
Liqun Luo is a professor at Stanford and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator who studies how neural circuits assemble during development. Principles of Neurobiology was written as a teaching textbook for graduate students and advanced undergraduates and is organized around the key experiments that established each principle, rather than around a list of facts to memorize. The book moves from molecules and membranes through synaptic transmission, sensory systems, motor control, learning and memory, and the development of the nervous system. Luo pairs careful exposition with figures drawn directly from the primary literature, so readers learn how neuroscientists actually argue from data. A second edition was published by CRC Press in 2020. The book is widely used in core neuroscience courses at research universities.
What you might want to know about Principles of Neurobiology
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Stanford neurobiologist Liqun Luo presents a graduate-level introduction to neuroscience built around primary experiments and the principles they reveal.
Huberman has posted on X that Principles of Neurobiology is the textbook he points neuroscience students to first, calling Liqun Luo's treatment of the field the clearest and most experiment-grounded he knows.
It is a real textbook and assumes some biology and chemistry, but a motivated general reader who is willing to move slowly and consult the figures can still get a great deal from individual chapters.
Principles of Neurobiology was written by Liqun Luo, published in 2015 by Garland Science.
Principles of Neurobiology is 692 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Principles of Neurobiology takes most readers 10 to 15 hours to finish.
Principles of Neurobiology is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.