Biological signal processing

Cell Biology

484

international

Biological Edited

Signal

by H C Luttgan 1SBN

Reports,

Vol. 14, No. 5, May

1990

Processing and R Necker

V.C.H. O-89573-883-X

‘Biological Signal Processing' is an account of the out in biological research that was carried the Sonderforschungskereich at the Ruhr-Universitat in Bochum between 1970 and 1986. The research groups working there used a range of preparations to investigate how biological signals are received, processed and integrated by living organisms. The result is this impressive collection of contributions that make an excellent reference work for specialists in the field. In an attempt to make the book more accessible to the non-specialist the book is organised into two sections and each is preceded by an overview in which the research groups are introduced, their research topics discussed and their main results presented. The first section deals with signal processing at the cellular level and the second with the integrative aspects of signal processing. Each contribution deals with a particular preparation and these include cardiac muscle, ciliates and insect photoreceptors for studies at the cellular level, and the visual behaviour of birds, hearing in insects and the interrelation of circulation, respiration and thermoregulation in birds and mammals for the integrative aspects. The contributions dealing with vision and hearing in insects are typical of the book covering a range of phenomenon in some depth. Insect photoreception is a consideration of both the primary mechanisms of visual excitation and the mechanisms of adaption. The photochemistry of the visual pigments is described in some detail and an account is given of the response of the receptor to activation of visual the pigment and the consequent biochemical amplification cascade. Light and dark adaption are reviewed and the renewal of the visual pigments is described. Similarly, representation

hearing of

0309-1651/90/050484-21$03.00/O

in acoustic

the bushcricket signals in the

explores the central r.ervous

@1990Academic

Press

Ltd.

Cell Biology

International

Reports,

Vol. 14, No. 5, May

1990

485

system, frequency analysis and distance perception and the localisation of sound in both the laboratory and the field. The methods used include neurophysiological recording, intracellular staining of identified auditory neurones and behavioural studies. All of the contributors are well illustrated and fully referenced and the two overviews The book provide additional illustrations and references. represents a valuable contribution to an understanding of signal processing and shows that a combined study over a number of years directed at a particular problem can lead to some important solutions. Professor February

D J Beadle 1990