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introtobn.bsky.social
Intro to BN open textbook
@introtobn.bsky.social
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Home of Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience textbook. An open educational resource. We promote our own content and other open educational resources in neuroscience.

https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-behavioral-neuroscience
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introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: How do you miss a gorilla in the room? How do you decide to skip the big party so you can study for an exam? These seem like different questions but they are both tied to Attention & Executive function. Learn about it in Ch 19 from author Kevin Wilson!

tinyurl.com/itobnch19
Cartoon of students in a lecture hall watching a video with a gorilla in the middle of a crowd. One student has a thought bubble that says "What gorilla?"
June 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
I can remember my preschool best friend's birthday but not where I parked my gosh darn car. What's up with that? Memory is weird. And cool! Learn more about it in Ch 18 Learning and Memory by Amy Griffin.

tinyurl.com/ItoBNch18

#Neuroscience
Diagram of a human brain showing the location of major systems associated with memory. Striatum in middle of brain: procedural memory. Amygdala in temporal lobe: emotion association. Hippocampus in temporal lobe: Episodic memory.
May 30, 2025 at 5:51 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Balance is important. From the levels of oxygen in our blood to our caloric intake, maintaining a stable internal environment is critical for our survival. Learn more about this process of Homeostasis in Ch16 by Matt Carter. #neuroscience #homeostasis

tinyurl.com/itobnch16
Image of human torso with text “Homeostasis is the maintenance of a stable environment for factors necessary for survival” Icons to present balance in blood oxygen levels, body temperature, caloric intake and fluid intake are shown."
February 17, 2025 at 8:45 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Are you sleeping well nowadays? Sleep is an integral part of our #circadianrhythm. Organisms that don't sleep also show biological rhythms, even bacteria! Learn more in Ch 15 Biological Rhythms & Sleep by @mahoneymeg.bsky.social & @docofclocks.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/itobnc15
Top is a diagram of a sagittal human brain with projections from the TMN (histamine), raphe nucleus (5HT), locus coeruleus (NE) in brainstem. Projections extend widely throughout the cortex. LDT/PPT (ACh) sends projections to the thalamus. Bottom shows a cartoon of a balance with VLPO/sleep on one side and TMN, Rn, LC and PPT/LDT with Wake on the other side. Sleep transitions are regulated by this 'flip flop switch'.
February 4, 2025 at 7:52 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Drugs can powerfully change the brain. Sometimes this is a medical miracle, relieving pain or anxiety. But too much of any drug can be toxic and some drugs lead to addiction. Learn more in Ch14 Psychopharmacology by Dr. @shivonrobinson.bsky.social!

tinyurl.com/itobnch14
Cartoon representations of drugs being administered intravenously (1min), intranasally (1-2 min), via inhalation (1-2 min), orally (20min-1hr) and transdermal (hours) Graph of plasma concentration (ng/L, y axis) versus time (hours). 3 curves show the plasma concentration of a drug over time for low, middle and high dose, revealing different absorption rates. Only the middle curve shows plasma concentrations within the therapeutic range (above “ineffective”) without inducing toxic effects.
January 27, 2025 at 2:55 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
We're glad you're finding open resources useful! Fun fact: we at Intro to Behavioral Neuroscience welcome feedback from instructors and students, from anyone really. So spread the word!

openstax.org/details/book...
Scroll to the bottom at the above link and the button looks like this:
Screenshot of a website section titled Errata. A button "Suggest a correction" is circled and signaled with arrows.
January 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
We're glad you're finding open resources useful! And if you are using our Intro to Behavioral Neuroscience book, remember there is an Errata button on the title page for your corrections and feedback.

openstax.org/details/book...
Scroll to the bottom and the button looks like this:
Screenshot of a website, showing and Errata section with a "suggest a correction" button circled and signaled with arrows.
January 23, 2025 at 12:52 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: How are you feeling today? Our brains produce a wide range of emotions. Mostly those emotions are adaptive and help us make decisions. But sometimes they are not. Learn more about the #neuroscience of Emotion in Ch 13 Emotion and Mood by Cedric Williams.

tinyurl.com/itobnch13
A group of people with different facial expressions.
January 21, 2025 at 10:34 AM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Exams. Deadlines. Traffic. Feeling stressed yet? There is fascinating neuroscience behind stress. And many misconceptions too. Some stress is actually beneficial, for ex. Learn all about it in Ch 12 Stress by S. Muroy, MJ Ko, H Jaques &D Kaufer!
#neuroscience #stress
tinyurl.com/itobnch12
A line graph with y axis “behavioral performance” from low to high and x-axis “stress/stimulation” from too little to too much. An inverted-U curve is plotted. At too little stress, symptoms listed are impaired attention, boredom, confusion, apathy. In the middle, at the peak of the U, is eustress with symptoms focused attention, emotional regulation, rational thinking. At too much stress is distress, with symptoms of impaired memory, burn out, impaired executive functions.
January 15, 2025 at 9:30 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Sex is complicated. It depends on genes, hormones and environment. And it is separate from the human construct of gender. Learn about the neuroscience of sex differentiation/differences in Ch11 Sex. Behav. & Devel. by @nduquewilckens.bsky.social
#SABV #neuroscience
tinyurl.com/itobnch11
Two distribution graphs. Sexual dimorphism: shows male and females as separate distributions for a hypothetical trait. Sex difference: shows male and female distribution of a trait as highly overlapping, with just a small separation.
January 14, 2025 at 11:02 AM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Want to flip like Simone Biles? Or run like Noah Lyles? Well, this chapter won't actually help with that. But, Ch 10 Motor Control by Michael Sandstrom will show you how our brain cooks up motor plans and gets our muscles to execute them! Check it out! #neuroscience

tinyurl.com/itobnch10
Left top: Lateral surface view of human brain with primary motor cortex highlighted. Text box reads primary motor cortex (M1) produces the final motor output that descends into the body got implementation. Left bottom: Sagittal surface view of human brain with primary motor cortex highlighted. Right: Coronal view of major divisions of primary motor cortex, showing drawings of represented body parts lying along the surface of the cortex. Text box reads the homunculus distribution of control shows where M1 activation of movement in different body parts originates.
January 13, 2025 at 1:13 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: A welcome hug. Getting hit in the face with a snowball. Burning your tongue on hot coffee. Touch and pain are potent sensory experiences, often with great influence on our emotions. Learn more about it in Ch 9 Touch & Pain by Yuan Bo Peng. #neuroscience

openstax.org/books/introd...
top: A diagram of a cube of skin, excised to show hypodermis, dermis and epidermis. Within the layers, major cells types and structures are shown. Bottom: A series of 5 panels, each showing a drawing of a cross-section of skin with a different major touch/pain receptor shown in its anatomical position. A figure caption reads: Figure 9.2 Mechanoreceptory types. In this example from the skin, there aer Merkel disks and Meissner's corpuscles in the superficial part of the skin. Hair follicles, Ruffini endings and Pacinian corpuscles sit in the deeper part of the skin. All of these use large myelinated A-beta fibers. Unmyelinated C fiber Free nerve endings are found throughout the skin.
January 9, 2025 at 11:17 AM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Ever noticed that food loses flavor when you have a cold. What's up with that? Your perception of flavor is not one sense. It is a mixing of taste, smell and chemosensation. Read about it in Ch8 Chemical Senses by Joe Zak & @jakesaunders.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/itobnch8

#neuroscience
The left panel of this image shows the side view of a person’s face with a cup containing a beverage underneath the nose. The image shows how the aroma of the beverage passes through the nasal cavity. The right panel shows a detailed ultrastructure of the olfactory bulb. A textbox reads: Odorant molecules activate receptors in the cilia of olfactory sensory neurons. Olfactory sensory neuron axons cross into the olfactory bulb, synapsing on mitral cells in polysynaptic structures called glomeruli.
January 8, 2025 at 1:23 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Use of the Michigan histology curricula has grown, with a big uptick during COVID, not surprisingly. They estimate only ~2-3% of users are from the State of Michigan now.
5/n
Graph of "number of monthly Michigan Histology Website sessions and users" on the y-axis and "time in yearly and monthly increments" on the x-axis, spanning from 2016 to mid-2022. Both curves grow from 20-30k in 2016 to 40-90k peak in late 2021. Curves show a cyclical pattern with peaks every year during Spring and Fall, and troughs in summer and winter.
January 7, 2025 at 11:10 AM
introtobn.bsky.social
The Hortsch article provides some interesting context about how this resource eventually replaced in person instruction at Michigan (where it was developed and integrated in instruction originally). Dwindling student enthusiasm for faculty-led sessions played a big role, and long before COVID.
4/n
Screenshot of text: Originally, students accessed the website during faculty-guided laboratory sessions. As the website allows students to study histology slides independently of scheduled laboratory hours at their own choice of time and location, fewer and fewer students participated as their attendance was non-mandatory.51 Interestingly, students, who attended these faculty-guided laboratory sessions, scored significantly better in histology assessments.35 The reluctance of many UM students to attend faculty-guided histology laboratory sessions may have been a contributing factor in their cancelation when a new medical curriculum was introduced at the UM Medical School for the 2015–2016 academic year.38, 52 This change of format made the Michigan Histology website the main learning resource for histology learners at the UM for acquiring analytical recognition skills of normal tissues and organs at the microscopic scale. Faculty-guided histology laboratory sessions for dental students had already been discontinued 10 years earlier and were replaced with self-study of the Michigan Histology website.
January 7, 2025 at 11:10 AM
introtobn.bsky.social
Images and instruction span from the area level down to the subcellular. Check out this rabbit motor neuron! Again, the text walks students through what they should be learning and appreciating from the image.
3/n
An electron microscopy image of a motor nerve cell (ventral horn of rabbit spinal cord; multipolar). It shows a cell body with a large nucleus. An axo-somatic synapse on that cell body is labeled, as are 2 dendrites. Surrounding the nerve cell are other, labeled features: glial cell nuclei, capillaries. Screenshot of text: 49 Motor nerve cell - Ventral Horn of Rabbit Spinal Cord, Multipolar Motor Neuron Cell Body View Virtual EM Slide Motor Neuron Cell Body. In this electron micrograph, note some of the features you saw in ventral horn motor neurons with the light microscope, such as the large, pale nucleus, prominent nucleolus, Nissl bodies, dendrites and axon. Adjacent to the neuron, note myelinated axons of various sizes and also that there are no spaces between cell processes. All spaces are occupied either by the processes of neurons or glia or by capillaries (these capillaries are somewhat swollen here because the tissue was fixed by perfusion).
January 7, 2025 at 11:10 AM
introtobn.bsky.social
The UM Histology website is setup as a series of online courses: for medical, dental and undergrad/grad students. Within each course, it has modules with learning objectives and self-quizzes. Just look at that hippocampus from the ugrad/grad CNS module with accompanying explanatory text!
2/n
A histology image of a human hippocampus with a blue/purple counterstain that reveals cell body layers. Several anatomical areas are labeled: hippocampal polymorphic, pyramidal cell and molecular layer, and dentate polymorphic, granule cell and molecular layer. Screenshot of text: In the dentate gyrus orientation Image, observe: ("4" in the orientation figure) a polymorphic layer containing nerve fibers (known as "mossy fibers") and cell bodies of interneurons, ("5" in the orientation figure) a middle granule cell layer containing the round, neuronal cell bodies of dentate granule cells slide NP004N View Image, and ("6" in the orientation figure) a molecular layer containing dendrites of the granule cells. The "hilus" is the region where the head of hippocampus abuts the dentate gyrus. The multipolar neurons in this area are known as "mossy cells" slide NP004N View Image and they primarily receive input from mossy fibers of the granule cells of the dentate gyrus and then relay those signals back to other cells in the dentate. In terms of clinical significance, the pyramidal cells of the hippocampus are particularly vulnerable to damage in severe circulatory failure and by anoxia of persistent severe seizures. You may see small calcific bodies in part of the hippocampus, which occur as a normal part of the aging process. Calcific bodies are present in the choroid plexus, another common site of accumulation as the years pass.
January 7, 2025 at 11:10 AM
introtobn.bsky.social
Also, for those wanting images of real neurons, we have them a bit further in the chapter than this original diagram (and in Ch 2). But, point taken that we could put images like this closer to the introduction of the neuron diagram and even explicitly address the simplifications in the diagram.
Drawings of excitatory and inhibitory cortical neurons with different shapes. Caption reads: Figure 2.33 Diversity of neurons Neurons are extremely diverse. The diversity in branching and complexity is astonishing, and within each of these neurons is additional diversity in terms of gene expression and electrical signaling. Image credit: Neuron shapes adapted from: BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN). A multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex. Nature 598, 86–102 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03950-0. CC BY 4.0 Examples of a Golgi stained neuron, immunofluorescent staining of a pyramidal neuron in brain tissue and brainbow labeling many densely packed neurons in brain tissue. Caption reads: Figure 1.11 Examples of neuronal stains Image credit: Golgi: By MethoxyRoxy, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1325286. Immunofluorescent: By Wei-Chung Allen Lee, Hayden Huang, Guoping Feng, Joshua R. Sanes, Emery N. Brown, Peter T. So, Elly Nedivi - Dynamic Remodeling of Dendritic Arbors in GABAergic Interneurons of Adult Visual Cortex. Lee WCA, Huang H, Feng G, Sanes JR, Brown EN, et al. PLoS Biology Vol. 4, No. 2, e29. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040029, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3482256. Brainbow: By Jeff W. Lichtman and Joshua R. Sanes - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2577038/, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25703326.
January 5, 2025 at 2:02 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
We love feedback! This is a great opportunity to highlight the Errata feature. On the title page, at the bottom, is a link to submit corrections and suggestions. We correct small errors regularly and save up bigger stuff for either yearly updates or the 5 year revision to generate a new edition.
Screenshot of webpage: "Errata All OpenStax textbooks undergo a rigorous review process. However, like any professional-grade textbook, errors sometimes occur. The good part is, since our books are web-based, we can make updates periodically. If you have a correction to suggest, submit it here. We review your suggestion and make necessary changes." Buttons for "suggest a correction" and "errata list" are shown.
January 5, 2025 at 1:51 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Special highlight: Open Neuroscience Initiative has a whole chapter on lateralization and language, something we don't have and that has not turned up in the other OERs we have highlighted yet. If you are looking to teach this topic, here is a resource to help with no cost to students!
Screenshot of a table of contents showing "Chapter 14: Lateralization and Language. 14.1 Lateralization, Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum. 14.2 Language, Dyslexia."
December 12, 2024 at 3:59 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Neurodevelopment brings us from a tube of neural stem cells to our beautiful, folded brain. Learn about the fascinating steps and vulnerabilities of Neurodevelopment in Ch 5 by Briana Pinales, Victoria Castro & Anita Quintana: tinyurl.com/itobnch5
Illustration of human brain viewed laterally from 29 days of embryonic development to birth and then from young child to adult. The brain is seen growing from a single, smooth neural tube to the complex adult brain with sulci and gyri. The main text explains relevant major changes. The cephalic flexure first arises at 33 days embryonic and more thorough curling over of the telencephalon is seen around 52 days. Sulci and gryi gradually emerge day 70-6mo embryonic, but more adult patterns of sulci and gyri are not evident until 9months/birth.
December 9, 2024 at 3:59 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
Spotlight: Eat the wrong part of a pufferfish and it's bad news. Pufferfish make a toxin that prevents your neurons from being able to send messages. You can learn more about the fascinating world of Neuronal Physiology in Ch 2 by Bob Calin-Jageman @thenewstats.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/itobnch2
Photo of pufferfish puffed up
November 25, 2024 at 3:37 PM
introtobn.bsky.social
On oldy but a goody from the old place. We as instructors can often control some of the costs that are foisted onto students. By choosing open educational resources, we can reduce financial barriers to education and make things just a little more equitable.
Screenshot of a twitter post from @ass_deans, 26 Aug 2023: "We increased tuition again so we need faculty to be mindful about the costs of the books, readings, and other materials they are assigning."
November 18, 2024 at 7:05 PM