Concept Taxonomy¶
Every concept in the learning graph belongs to exactly one of these 12 categories. The category sets the color of the concept's node in the learning graph viewer. The categories run roughly in the order the book teaches them, from basic biology to the clinic.
| Code | Category | Description | Concepts | Color |
|---|---|---|---|---|
FOUND |
Foundational Biology and Chemistry | Basic biology and chemistry needed before anything else: cell membranes, ions, proteins, and concentration gradients. | 4 | SteelBlue |
CELL |
Neurons and Glia | The cells of the nervous system (neurons and glia), their parts, and how the nervous system is organized. | 19 | DarkGreen |
SIG |
Electrical and Chemical Signaling | How neurons send signals: membrane potentials, the action potential, synapses, receptors, and neurotransmitters. | 36 | Gold |
ANAT |
Neuroanatomy | The structures of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, and how they are named, protected, and supplied with blood. | 23 | Teal |
SENS |
Sensory Systems and Pain | How the body turns light, sound, touch, taste, smell, and tissue damage into neural signals, and where those signals go. | 26 | Orange |
MOTOR |
Movement and Motor Control | Muscles, reflexes, the motor cortex, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum. | 12 | DarkSlateBlue |
DEV |
Development and Aging | How the brain is built before birth, how it changes in childhood and the teenage years, and how it ages. | 14 | LimeGreen |
COG |
Learning, Memory, and Cognition | Learning, memory, neuroplasticity, language, attention, and decision-making. | 21 | DarkOrchid |
STATE |
Sleep, Emotion, and Stress | Consciousness, sleep and circadian rhythms, emotion, stress, and reward. | 23 | LightSkyBlue |
DIS |
Disorders and Diseases | Neurological, psychiatric, and developmental disorders, injuries, and addiction. | 39 | Crimson |
CLIN |
Clinical Exam, Imaging, and Treatment | How doctors examine, image, diagnose, and treat the nervous system, including drugs and procedures. | 25 | HotPink |
RES |
Research Methods and Careers | How neuroscience is done: classic cases and model organisms, research methods and ethics, new technology, and careers. | 11 | SaddleBrown |
Total: 253 concepts.
Notes¶
- Foundational Biology and Chemistry (FOUND) is small on purpose. It holds only the few ideas from general biology and chemistry that the rest of the book builds on. Nervous System is also a starting point of the graph, but it is filed under Neurons and Glia (CELL).
- Disorders and Diseases (DIS) and Clinical Exam, Imaging, and Treatment (CLIN) appear in almost every chapter, because each chapter ends with a clinical case.
- See the Taxonomy Distribution Report for the full list of concepts in each category.