Okay, this is a bit more obscure - read academic - for many, but I personally have always been a fan of Eric Kandel's work. Eric Kandel, a Nobel Laureate, has spent a good part of his career delving into the neurobiology of the sea slug, Aplysia (not because of an overwhelming fascination into the cognitive life of the sea slug, but because the animal affords better opportunities to study what's going on at a molecular level than many other, more complex, animals). You can hear an interview with him.