Biological Basis of Behavior

Reviewed by Chris Fietkiewicz, Associate Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges on 5/25/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

It is excellent as an accessible, introductory text, but it is not a comprehensive textbook. It is clearly a supplement to an existing college course and provides good breadth for the chosen areas of interest. It’s mostly a reorganization of Austin Lim's “Open Neuroscience Initiative” (https://www.austinlim.com/open-neuroscience-initiative). As an introduction to the field, Lim’s book itself has excellent breadth in both neurophysiology and behavior. Cobb’s text reuses Lim’s text and adds a glossary and links to videos and other readings. The extra readings provide additional depth to the material. My only reason for not giving the highest rating is that the main text (adapted from Lim’s textbook) is, understandably, not designed to be a comprehensive textbook in the first place.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Nothing inaccurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

It appears up-to-date across multiple areas, including neurophysiology, research methods, and established understanding of pathologies.

Clarity rating: 4

This rating is for the text taken from Lim’s textbook. The added videos and extra readings are different, in that the videos are very simple, and the extra readings can be very complicated. The text from Lim’s book is very good at providing real examples to explain procedural concepts, such as experimental methods or categories for animal models (in psychopathology). My only reason for not giving the highest rating is that figures have minimal descriptions, sometimes omitting information that is necessary for understanding the figure. Links are provided for every figure, but some may be for subscription-based content.

Consistency rating: 4

The text from Lim’s book is highly consistent. My only reason for not giving the highest rating is that the external videos and readings are not directly designed as part of the included text from Lim’s book. Cobb has compiled a great collection of resources, but text, videos, and extra readings don’t form a linear framework. Fortunately, they are provided as links, and the reader can disregard them if desired.

Modularity rating: 3

The modularity of Lim’s chapters is exemplified by the fact that Cobb’s text actually reorders the chapters, as compared to Lim’s original order. Though not a major problem, there are three sections where Cobb provides only links for videos and extra readings, without any additional text from Lim’s textbook. In all three cases, the videos and extra readings seem directly relevant to the preceding section in Cobb’s organization. So it’s not clear why they were separated and designated as a complete section for themselves. These three sections in question are “Opioids and Psychedelics”, “Stimulants and Cannabis”, and “Psychopathology: Depressive and Bipolar Disorders”.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 2

As a stand-alone textbook, without an instructor, the organization can seem confusing. The sections are not itemized with numbers or letters, which can be confusing because they include numbered chapters from Lim's book. Though not wrong, it covers Lim's chapters in the following order: 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 11, 12, 15, 13, 16. Though this ordering flows equally as well, it includes the cover pages for each of Lim’s original chapters, so the original chapter numbers can appear to be out of order. The “Introduction” section even refers to chapter numbers that don’t appear in the table of contents. There are three designated sections that have additional links but no new text from Lim’s book, and which seem more appropriate as part of the preceding section.

Interface rating: 3

The main issue for readers to be aware of is that a subscription may be required for accessing resources using the links. A prominent feature of the book is the numerous links for videos and extra readings. While many of the videos are freely available on YouTube, some other resources require a subscription. The first “Introduction” section refers to Jove videos that require a subscription. There are many links for readings that also require a subscription.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

There are around 10 minor errors throughout the approximately 290 pages. A few minor typographical errors were carried over from Lim’s original text. Other errors appear to have occurred through automated copying from Lim’s book. Overall, these errors are not serious.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This reviewer is not trained in the evaluation of inclusivity in media. However, there is some inclusion of underrepresented groups, and the material appears to be appropriate.

Comments

The text is a valuable resource because it provides exposure to Austin Lim's book “Open Neuroscience Initiative” while adding links to additional resources. The video resources are useful as an accessible, alternative media format, and the journal article links support exposure to the scientific literature in the field.