Suggest best book as an introduction to computational neuroscience
Im trying to find a best place to start learning the field. I have no special math background. Im very eager to learn. Thanks alot!
Im trying to find a best place to start learning the field. I have no special math background. Im very eager to learn. Thanks alot!
Not particularly math-y, but people around me loved “how the mind works” from Steven Pinker.
I love that book too! I have read it once and listened it once.
How to build a brain by Chris Eliasmith is one possibility.
Awesome! Judging by the first 30 pages this is gold. Very nice, thanks a lot!
Networks of the Brain by Olaf Sporns certainly doesn’t cover all of computational neuroscience, but is a good accessible introduction to using the tools of network theory to gain a better understanding of brain function at many different levels.
I have been reading Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience by Gallistel and King.After that I will read Olaf Sporns book you recommended.
Just actually listened Brainscience podcast where Olaf spoke about his work.Thanks a lot!
From the cover text of How to Build a Brain it seems the main focus is on the architecture of SPAWN, and I suspect it does not actually give a proper introduction to other areas of computational neuroscience. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is the most enjoyable book to read on the topic, that you can find. I have read Computational Neuroscience by Hanspeter Mallot, which is very short, weird and not very good. I’m currently about halfway through Theoretical Neuroscience by Dayan and Abbott. My impression is, it might be decent for people with a strong physics/math background, it’s OK if you have some prior knowledge about the topics (e.g. having visited a lecture) and rather bad otherwise.
Edit: My prof told me about Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms (legal free online version), which is, as the title implies more about information theory and learning algorithms (so more mathy), but from the perspective of neuroscience, so it’s missing a lot of the typical topics of computational neuroscience. I have just started reading it, but so far it seems really well written (4.35 rating on goodreads), and it also contains exercises and reflection questions.
Thanks for the info :) Yes, thats true. I ordered Theoretical Neuroscience couple of days ago together with Mathematics for Neuroscientists by Gabbiani and Cox. No one teaches computational neuroscience in our university, so i have to try to learn this field by myself.
Found this free online course if someone else is interested: https://www.coursera.org/course/compneuro