From Neuron to Bedside¶
A free, interactive neuroscience textbook for high school students and future doctors.
Your brain has around 86 billion neurons.1 Neurological conditions are now the leading cause of illness and disability in the world, affecting roughly 3.4 billion people.2 Even so, many high schools teach little or no neuroscience. I made this book to help with that.
Hi, I'm Ply!
I'm a sea slug, the same kind of animal scientists used to discover how memories form at a single synapse. I only have about 20,000 neurons, so I'm very curious about your 86 billion. Every big idea starts at a single synapse!
What makes this book different¶
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Hands-on simulations
Every chapter has an interactive MicroSim. Fire an action potential, cut the visual pathway, block an artery, or build a night of sleep, all in your browser.
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A clinical case in every chapter
Each chapter ends At the Bedside: you follow a doctor's reasoning from symptoms to the exact part of the nervous system that's affected.
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Built for the Brain Bee
It covers the topics that high school neuroscience competitions ask about, with practice questions, quizzes, and a mock exam. It also teaches the patient-diagnosis skills that some higher-level rounds include.
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Free and open
You don't need an account, and there are no ads or paywalls. The book is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, it works on a phone, and anyone can suggest a fix on GitHub.
Start here¶
- New to neuroscience? Begin with Chapter 1: Neurons, Glia, and the Nervous System.
- Preparing for the Brain Bee? Read How to Use This Book, then Appendix A: Brain Bee Strategy and Mock Exam.
- Thinking about medicine? Jump to Chapter 16: How Doctors Examine the Brain to see where the whole book leads.
- Want to play first? Browse all the interactive MicroSims.
- Teaching or running a club? See For Teachers, the Club and Study Group Kit, and the free printable PDF downloads.
- Want to know how accurate it is? Read Accuracy and Corrections.
What's inside¶
| 16 chapters | From a single neuron to the hospital bedside |
| 16 interactive MicroSims | Simulations you can control, plus an interactive learning graph |
| A clinical case in every chapter | Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, concussion, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, and more |
| 160 quiz questions | Ten per chapter, each with an explanation |
| A learning graph | 253 concepts mapped so you learn prerequisites first |
| A 50-question mock exam | For Brain Bee practice, in Appendix A |
| Glossary and FAQ | 253 plain-language definitions and 75 common questions answered |
Important
This book is for education only. It is not medical advice. The patients in the Bedside cases are fictional composites, except for clearly identified historical cases. If you have symptoms or health questions, talk to a doctor.
From Neuron to Bedside is an independent student project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Brain Bee, the Society for Neuroscience, or any university.
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Azevedo, F. A. C., et al. (2009). "Equal numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells make the human brain an isometrically scaled-up primate brain." Journal of Comparative Neurology, 513(5), 532-541. PubMed ↩
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GBD 2021 Nervous System Disorders Collaborators. "Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990-2021." The Lancet Neurology, 2024. Summary from IHME. ↩