本书从实际应用的角度出发，具体介绍了膜片钳技术的基本概念、方法及实验技巧，同时还详细介绍了美国Axon公司(现M0lecular Devices公司)生产的膜片钳实验仪器与采样软件pClamp的使用方法，对膜片钳实验中常见的一些问题也进行了细致解答。本书共计5章，包括膜片钳技术基本概念、膜片钳技术实验方法、脑片膜片钳记录技术、膜片钳放大器及数模／模数转换器、膜片钳技术应用软件。此外在附录中还介绍了目前膜片钳放大器的常用类型及性能特点。本书的一大特色是内容侧重经验性、技巧性的介绍，实用性很强。
本书非常适合作为从事膜片钳技术的科技工作者(包括实验室技术人员、大专院校和科研院所的硕士、博士研究生等)的实验指导参考书，也可作为膜片钳技术的培训教材，还可作为生理学、神经科学、细胞生物学等相关专业的科研人员学习膜片钳技术的入门书籍。另外，本书还可为实验室购买膜片钳放大器提供参考，对从事膜片钳实验设备的市场营销人员也具有一定的参考价值。

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -- using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases: A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial. A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience? A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time. Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- the human mind -- yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.