★ The Mind's Machine: Foundations of Brain and Behavior, 5e REQUIRED · Oxford Insight · via Canvas only
This is the course. Delivered through Oxford Insight, embedded in Canvas Module 1 — the e-book plus assignments, graded activities, videos, quizzes, readings, and an AI study assistant. Because the graded activities live inside Insight, it is part of the gradebook, not a reference you can skip. Register via Canvas → Module 1 → Oxford Insight link (it hands off to oup.junction.app); use your school email. Billed to your student account ~3 weeks after classes start.
15 chapters. This course's stated scope — neurons and glia, neural communication, sensory processing — maps onto roughly Ch 1–7; see the course home page for the full chapter table. Exact module mapping still to be confirmed on Canvas.
📖 The 4th edition is readable on this site. A downloaded copy of the 4th edition (2021, ISBN 9780197542811) has been extracted and embedded under Textbook — all 15 chapters plus the Introduction, with an AI tutor grounded in whichever chapter you have open. Same chapter structure as the 5th, so it tracks the course well for reading and review, but page numbers differ and some content was revised for the 5th. Graded work still goes through Oxford Insight; never cite a page number from the 4th-edition copy.
Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain — Enhanced Edition (2020) SUPPLEMENTARY · not the assigned text · NO LONGER ON THIS SITE
Not the course textbook — this hub was originally built around Bear before the Oxford Insight requirement was known. It stays because the overlap with this course is genuinely large: Bear's treatment of neurons and glia, membrane and action potentials, synaptic transmission, neurotransmitters, and the sensory systems covers the same ground as The Mind's Machine Ch 1–3 and 5–7, usually in more mechanistic depth. Use it as the "explain it harder" reference when an Insight chapter is too compressed.
Removed from this site on 2026-08-24. Bear used to be served under Textbook, which was misleading: it is a different book from the assigned one, its chapter numbers do not correspond, and the AI tutor was answering from it. Textbook now serves The Mind's Machine — the actual course text — in both readable text and original PDF pages. Bear is kept as an off-site reference only.
Do not use it to decide what is on the exam. Bear has 25 chapters against the Mind's Machine's 15 and orders them differently; scope comes from Canvas, not from here.
Extracted: C:\Users\johnn\Downloads\Bear_Neuroscience_Extracted\
MIT OCW 9.01 Introduction to Neuroscience — Mark Bear (FREE)
Taught by the textbook author himself. Full lecture notes, syllabus, problem sets — exactly the same topic flow as the textbook. Watch one chapter from Bear → watch matching OCW lecture → drill flashcards.
Neuroscience — Purves et al., 6th Edition
Alternative intro neuro textbook. More medical-school focused than Bear. NCBI Bookshelf hosts a free online version of the 2nd edition that still covers most of NEUR 1520 topics.
Open Neuroscience — Kevin Otterness · MSU Open Textbook
Free + open-licensed intro neuroscience text. Less depth than Bear but you can legally use figures + content.
Chivero's research area (microglia + neuroinflammation)
- Ernest Chivero faculty page
- Chivero Google Scholar
- Mech of methamphetamine + HIV-1 neurotoxicity (Chivero co-author)
- NLRP3 + cocaine microglial activation (Chivero senior)
Video lectures (intro neuroscience)
Anna's Archive notice
Reference use is the safe path; Bear in print costs ~$120-200. Used 4e on AbeBooks ~$30.
📚 Quick-jump · all chapters
Direct links to each chapter on the embedded textbook reader. Each chapter page has the full OCR-extracted text + every relevant figure from the source PDF.