Preface from Original Author, Austin Lim
For years, I had used old college textbooks to prop up my computer monitor. Of course I gained valuable information from these texts at one point. But every time I sat down to work, I was reminded of just how expensive college can be.
This project began as a means to overcoming the financial burden that face undergraduate neuroscience students when buying textbooks. By compiling and writing a completely free-to-access textbook that covers the foundations of a typical college introduction to neuroscience course, students would have one less obstacle to overcome in their educational career, allowing them to focus their valuable time and attention on learning rather than finances.
To make this project a reality, I began with a humble tweet in May 2019 that managed to gain a tiny bit of traction among the neuroscience Twitter-sphere. A handful of retweets and comments later, several experts who shared my ideology for open educational resources contacted me directly, looking for ways to be involved in the project. Ultimately, almost half of the contributing authors or content expert editors were recruited through Twitter, while the other half were personal connections I had made through my time as a neuroscientist.
My choice to distribute this text freely over the internet was deliberate. We have been living in a digital era where most (if not all) of us have completely unfettered access to the entirety of the world’s knowledge using a desktop, laptop, or cell phone. Why shouldn’t a formal neuroscience education be any different? My hope for this project is to share my passion of neuroscience with the world. Additionally, widespread adoption of open educational resources like this means increased access and decreased inequity across the realm of higher education, opening the doors for a more inclusive and diverse future.
Note: I did not receive any financial compensation through the writing of this textbook, and I am hosting the complete document on my personal website. If you would like to support this endeavor and future projects directly, you can send any donations to this bitcoin address.
I acknowledge a major limitation present in all textbooks: that science is rapidly-changing and ever-evolving. To our knowledge, the information is current as of 2021. The authors have worked with the editors and a growing team of researchers to verify that the statements made here are backed by peer-reviewed studies. However, I would encourage that additional sources be used to verify the most up-to-date numbers or statistics and current state of knowledge.
