Reddit reviews MATLAB for Neuroscientists: An Introduction to Scientific Computing in MATLAB

Neuroscience is increasingly computational, both in the sense of studying the brain as a computer and in the sense of using a computer to study the brain. Learn to use Matlab - I would recommend either MATLAB for Neuroscientists or MATLAB for Psychologists depending on your ability and interests. Knowing programming and learning techniques early on is incredibly valuable. Volunteer in labs and learn these things, get excellent marks and get stellar recommendations. If you do this you should be fine.

EDIT: MATLAB for Neuroscientists is a bit more technical in nature and will require some exposure to calculus and linear algebra. The more complex bits will also likely require some familiarity with differential equations.

I entered Neuroscience not really knowing much about programming and now some 8+ odd years later I have two companies willing to pay me six figures for software I've written (mostly est. off royalties but 5 figs. up front). So I've gone through pretty much every stage of expertise there is. For most people, Matlab is sufficient and this book exists which I haven't personally used but looks great. Python may or may not be a great investment. Matlab dominates systems neuroscience so if you go into a 'Matlab lab' that's all you'll use and while it will be nice to have some Python expertise you won't actually use it. On the other hand, there is a movement to use non-Matlab software (more so in Europe) and the stuff in Python is really good. There is a big Python community and a lot of people just like it (and have come to dislike Matlab).


But want to get serious? Learn C and C++. There is simply no substitute for these if you want to write fast, standalone applications. In addition there's enough code, usually in critical applications tied to hardware, written in either of these that it is very good to know in case you have to go in and look/fix. So for the second reason my recommendation would be to learn C.

Chapter 25 of this book goes into this subject.

Strangely it's the only chapter lacking citations IIRC.

Check out matlab for neuroscientists you can probably skip the first couple of chapters as they deal with the very basics. The later chapters get into more specific subjects, designing experiments, and analysis techniques. They even provide datasets online for you to play with. I hope that helps!