PART ONE

Cellular Neurobiology
THE NUTS AND BOLTS

Over the past century neurobiologists have focused on the cells of the nervous system. The structure of neurons and synapses has been elucidated in great detail; we now understand how individual nerve and receptor cells generate, carry, and transmit electrical and chemical signals, and we have identified many of the substances used by neurons to communicate information. More recently, molecular biological approaches are revealing the ways in which molecules carry out the various tasks of neural activity.