Behavioral Neuroscience

Behavioral Neuroscience by George Spilich, presents the neurophysiological aspects of behavior to the 21st-century, digital-native learner in the context of human experience, rather than in that of laboratory experiments with non-human animals.  Whether a student has enrolled in the course to prepare them for a career in medicine or science, or they are fulfilling a general education science requirement, Behavioral Neuroscience is written to meet them where they are.

The text has an accessible writing style, real-life examples and data sets, active-learning exercises, and multimodal media and quizzes—all designed to make the subject more engaging and relevant. This ground-breaking first edition is ideal for the Introductory Behavioral Neuroscience or the Biological Psychology course.

Enhanced Etext: The Etext integrates a rich and varied array of digital visualizations, video interviews, and engaging online demonstrations and quizzes within the chapter, providing students with a more engaging and streamlined way to learn the material.  Students using the printed text have access to the media via QR codes.

Active Learning: Every chapter contains multiple activities that engage students’ imaginations  and convey content in a manner that appeals to digital-native students. 

Check It Out presents a dynamic visualization of an aspect of brain anatomy, a demonstration of a biopsychological process, or a video interview with a researcher or another interesting person.

Try It Out gives students a directed task to complete or a data set to interpret, with a series of questions, making the learning active. 

Think About It presents real-world examples with questions that foster critical thinking.

Real Data Sets: Instructors and students can access data from actual experiments to make the subject more relevant and engaging.  Depending upon the class’s statistical preparation, instructors may ask students to interpret a graph or a test’s output or may ask students to decide how to best analyze a data set.  The Instructor’s Resources site provides a crib for all three possibilities. 

Real-Life Connections: Throughout the chapters, the author poses meaningful questions that help students connect the content to everyday, real-world experiences.

Robust Instructor Resources: Instructors have immediate access to the multimedia in the Check It Out, Try It Out, and Think About It features.  They also have access to additional media, like video demonstrations and worksheets, to enrich and customize class presentations.  

Up-to-Date Coverage of Social Neuroscience: The text covers emerging topics, like the biological basis of social behaviors, including emotions; understanding facial expressions within and across cultures; an evolutionary perspective on attractiveness; prejudice; and the neural basis of Asperger’s syndrome, in detail.

Advances in Behavioral Neuroscience: The text highlights notable researchers whose work has greatly contributed to an understanding of the science.  The text also directs students to each researcher’s lab webpage and directs students to answer brief questions about each researcher’s work.