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Visual Neuroscience
596
associations are important for understanding the mechanisms of immune response. There exists a correlation between protein segment mobility and antigenicity which makes molecular dynamics a potential tool in the design of peptide vaccines. Moreover, hinge bending motion of proteins is involved in the specific repressorDNA binding. The increasing importance of theoretical methods as the tools for answering practical questions in drug research, gene technology and biotechnology will accelerate improvement in molecular dynamics. One direction will be the prediction of molecular properties prior to synthesis. McCammon and Harvey’s book will be an authentic guide on this new avenue. H. FRITZSCHE Jena
Visual Neuroscience. J.D. Pettigrew, K.J. Sanderson and W.R. Levick (Editors). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986, ISBN O-521-25829, x + 448 pp., E75.00, US$125.00. “Visual Neuroscience” is a record of the presentations made at a meeting which took place at Lord Howe Island (eastern Australia) in September 1983 to celebrate Bishop’s career spans the whole Peter Bishop’s career in visual neuroscience. post-war period of visual physiology, and our present knowledge of the visual pathways probably owes as much to the work of his laboratory and of his students now scattered throughout the world as it does to the studies of Hubel and Wiesel. Bishop’s own work in vision began in the 1950s with an analysis of the circuitry of the lateral geniculate nucleus, and continued with a long series of studies on the nature of binocular vision and on binocular interactions in the lateral geniculate and the cortex. But, without doubt, the scientific success of so many of his disciples supports the view that Bishop’s real legacy is represented by his students, and their contributions to this volume are the best demonstration of this statement. The book has six sections, beginning with the retina and continuing with retinogeniculate connections, visual development, comparative visual physiology and visual cortex, and ending with the integrative aspects of visual psychology. Each section begins with a short introduction which provides some background information to tie the different contributions together. The book also has some personal details of each author’s career and the impact on it of Bishop. The opening paper is by Barlow (“Why can’t the eye see better?‘), a provocative and entertaining discussion on the physical and neural limits to vision. In the early stages of vision, physical factors set firm limits to what can be achieved, and the eye seems to approach them quite closely. It is much harder to spot the limiting factors for the higher functions of vision, but Barlow’s suggestion is that an answer might come from the realization of the difficulty of the task of object recognition set by the requirements for invariance, completeness and exclusiveness in the representation of
597
the objects to be recognized. Asking “Why doesn’t the eye see better?” will direct our attention to interesting problems in vision and will help us to understand why the visual system is organized the way it is. There follow a number of reviews dealing with one of the most important themes of the Bishop school: The X,V,W classification of retinal ganglion cells and the way this division is maintained through the geniculate and cortex. Sampling of visual space by the retina is also discussed (Wassle, Levick) since it provides a description of the grain the brain can use for further visual information processing. The section on comparative visual physiology includes contributions by Pettigrew (on the evolution of binocular vision), who examines binocular vision in cats and owls, and by A&kin, who examines the processing of information in the auditory system with the visual system in mind. Sanderson discusses the paradox of lateral geniculate nucleus function, which concerns the way it appears to go to great lengths, in evolutionary terms, to sandwich closely together layers representing each eye, yet at the same time keeps inputs to those layers from each eye functionally and anatomically segregated. The final sections on the visual cortex and on integrative aspects in vision directly tackle the problem whose understanding constituted the long-range goal of the previous studies, namely how the visual system performances can explain perception and (see, for instance, McKay’s paper) “what is the task of vision?” These also include a nice pair of papers (Day, Peterhans) on illusory contours and on how cortical cells respond to them. The venue for the search for coherent themes of visual organization seems likely to be at the interface between visual psychophysics, artificial intelligence and neurosciences. “Visual Neuroscience” surely represents an account of our present understanding of vision which is biased towards the parallel nature of visual processing as opposed to the serial hierarchy of Hubel and Wiesel, but represents, nonetheless, essential and very pleasant reading for all those concerned at the research level on how the brain sees. A. CA’ITANEO Rome
Electromyography and Evoked Potentials. Theories and Applications. (Advances in Applied Neurological Sciences, Vol. 1. A. Struppler and A. Weindl (Editors). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, Tokyo, New York, 1985, ISBN 3-540-13973-7 270 pp., DM92.00. In recent years, the developments and applications of electromyographic and electroneurographic and evoked potential methods have helped greatly in giving us insights into the functions of different neural systems. These advancements raise important questions about the relevance of such methods for clinical diagnosis and about the technological refinements and developments that may be necessary to enable the use of such methods for clinical and diagnostic purposes.
associations are important for understanding the mechanisms of immune response. There exists a correlation between protein segment mobility and antigenicity which makes molecular dynamics a potential tool in the design of peptide vaccines. Moreover, hinge bending motion of proteins is involved in the specific repressorDNA binding. The increasing importance of theoretical methods as the tools for answering practical questions in drug research, gene technology and biotechnology will accelerate improvement in molecular dynamics. One direction will be the prediction of molecular properties prior to synthesis. McCammon and Harvey’s book will be an authentic guide on this new avenue. H. FRITZSCHE Jena
Visual Neuroscience. J.D. Pettigrew, K.J. Sanderson and W.R. Levick (Editors). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986, ISBN O-521-25829, x + 448 pp., E75.00, US$125.00. “Visual Neuroscience” is a record of the presentations made at a meeting which took place at Lord Howe Island (eastern Australia) in September 1983 to celebrate Bishop’s career spans the whole Peter Bishop’s career in visual neuroscience. post-war period of visual physiology, and our present knowledge of the visual pathways probably owes as much to the work of his laboratory and of his students now scattered throughout the world as it does to the studies of Hubel and Wiesel. Bishop’s own work in vision began in the 1950s with an analysis of the circuitry of the lateral geniculate nucleus, and continued with a long series of studies on the nature of binocular vision and on binocular interactions in the lateral geniculate and the cortex. But, without doubt, the scientific success of so many of his disciples supports the view that Bishop’s real legacy is represented by his students, and their contributions to this volume are the best demonstration of this statement. The book has six sections, beginning with the retina and continuing with retinogeniculate connections, visual development, comparative visual physiology and visual cortex, and ending with the integrative aspects of visual psychology. Each section begins with a short introduction which provides some background information to tie the different contributions together. The book also has some personal details of each author’s career and the impact on it of Bishop. The opening paper is by Barlow (“Why can’t the eye see better?‘), a provocative and entertaining discussion on the physical and neural limits to vision. In the early stages of vision, physical factors set firm limits to what can be achieved, and the eye seems to approach them quite closely. It is much harder to spot the limiting factors for the higher functions of vision, but Barlow’s suggestion is that an answer might come from the realization of the difficulty of the task of object recognition set by the requirements for invariance, completeness and exclusiveness in the representation of
597
the objects to be recognized. Asking “Why doesn’t the eye see better?” will direct our attention to interesting problems in vision and will help us to understand why the visual system is organized the way it is. There follow a number of reviews dealing with one of the most important themes of the Bishop school: The X,V,W classification of retinal ganglion cells and the way this division is maintained through the geniculate and cortex. Sampling of visual space by the retina is also discussed (Wassle, Levick) since it provides a description of the grain the brain can use for further visual information processing. The section on comparative visual physiology includes contributions by Pettigrew (on the evolution of binocular vision), who examines binocular vision in cats and owls, and by A&kin, who examines the processing of information in the auditory system with the visual system in mind. Sanderson discusses the paradox of lateral geniculate nucleus function, which concerns the way it appears to go to great lengths, in evolutionary terms, to sandwich closely together layers representing each eye, yet at the same time keeps inputs to those layers from each eye functionally and anatomically segregated. The final sections on the visual cortex and on integrative aspects in vision directly tackle the problem whose understanding constituted the long-range goal of the previous studies, namely how the visual system performances can explain perception and (see, for instance, McKay’s paper) “what is the task of vision?” These also include a nice pair of papers (Day, Peterhans) on illusory contours and on how cortical cells respond to them. The venue for the search for coherent themes of visual organization seems likely to be at the interface between visual psychophysics, artificial intelligence and neurosciences. “Visual Neuroscience” surely represents an account of our present understanding of vision which is biased towards the parallel nature of visual processing as opposed to the serial hierarchy of Hubel and Wiesel, but represents, nonetheless, essential and very pleasant reading for all those concerned at the research level on how the brain sees. A. CA’ITANEO Rome
Electromyography and Evoked Potentials. Theories and Applications. (Advances in Applied Neurological Sciences, Vol. 1. A. Struppler and A. Weindl (Editors). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, Tokyo, New York, 1985, ISBN 3-540-13973-7 270 pp., DM92.00. In recent years, the developments and applications of electromyographic and electroneurographic and evoked potential methods have helped greatly in giving us insights into the functions of different neural systems. These advancements raise important questions about the relevance of such methods for clinical diagnosis and about the technological refinements and developments that may be necessary to enable the use of such methods for clinical and diagnostic purposes.