A Vision of the Brain
Title | A Vision of the Brain PDF eBook |
Author | Semir Zeki |
Publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
Pages | 380 |
Release | 2010-01-15 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781444314007 |
* Authored by one of the world's foremost authorities on the biology of the brain. * Illustrated in two colours throughout. * Contains a section of full-colour graphics. * A benchmark text for students and researchers alike. .
Vision and the Brain
Title | Vision and the Brain PDF eBook |
Author | Amanda Hall Lueck |
Publisher | AFB Press |
Pages | 720 |
Release | 2015-04 |
Genre | Pediatric neuroophthalmology |
ISBN | 9780891286394 |
Cerebral visual impairment (also known as cortical visual impairment, or CVI) has become the most common cause of visual impairment in children in the United States and the developed world. Vision and the Brain is a unique and comprehensive sourcebook geared especially to professionals in the field of visual impairment, educators, and families who need to know more about the causes and types of CVI and the best practices for working with affected children. Expert contributors from many countries represent education, occupational therapy, orientation and mobility, ophthalmology, optometry, neuropsychology, psychology, and vision science, and include parents of children with CVI. The book provides an in-depth guide to current knowledge about brain-related vision loss in an accessible form to enable readers to recognize, understand, and assess the behavioral manifestations of damage to the visual brain and develop effective interventions based on identification of the spectrum of individual needs. Chapters are designed to help those working with children with CVI ascertain the nature and degree of visual impairment in each child, so that they can "see" and appreciate the world through the child's eyes and ensure that every child is served appropriately.
Brain, Vision, Memory
Title | Brain, Vision, Memory PDF eBook |
Author | Charles G. Gross |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Pages | 284 |
Release | 1999-07-26 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 9780262571357 |
In these engaging tales describing the growth of knowledge about the brain—from the early Egyptians and Greeks to the Dark Ages and the Renaissance to the present time—Gross attempts to answer the question of how the discipline of neuroscience evolved into its modern incarnation through the twists and turns of history. Charles G. Gross is an experimental neuroscientist who specializes in brain mechanisms in vision. He is also fascinated by the history of his field. In these tales describing the growth of knowledge about the brain from the early Egyptians and Greeks to the present time, he attempts to answer the question of how the discipline of neuroscience evolved into its modern incarnation through the twists and turns of history. The first essay tells the story of the visual cortex, from the first written mention of the brain by the Egyptians, to the philosophical and physiological studies by the Greeks, to the Dark Ages and the Renaissance, and finally, to the modern work of Hubel and Wiesel. The second essay focuses on Leonardo da Vinci's beautiful anatomical work on the brain and the eye: was Leonardo drawing the body observed, the body remembered, the body read about, or his own dissections? The third essay derives from the question of whether there can be a solely theoretical biology or biologist; it highlights the work of Emanuel Swedenborg, the eighteenth-century Swedish mystic who was two hundred years ahead of his time. The fourth essay entails a mystery: how did the largely ignored brain structure called the "hippocampus minor" come to be, and why was it so important in the controversies that swirled about Darwin's theories? The final essay describes the discovery of the visual functions of the temporal and parietal lobes. The author traces both developments to nineteenth-century observations of the effect of temporal and parietal lesions in monkeys—observations that were forgotten and subsequently rediscovered.
Vision, Brain, and Behavior in Birds
Title | Vision, Brain, and Behavior in Birds PDF eBook |
Author | Harris Philip Zeigler |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Pages | 452 |
Release | 1993 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 9780262240369 |
This book provides the first comprehensive and current review of considerable progress made over the past decade in analyzing neural and behavioral mechanisms mediating visually guided behavior in birds.The visual capacities of birds rival even those of primates, and their visual system probably reflects the operation of a ground plan common to all vertebrates. This book provides the first comprehensive and current review of considerable progress made over the past decade in analyzing neural and behavioral mechanisms mediating visually guided behavior in birds.The book's five major sections deal with the visual world of birds, the organization of avian visual systems, the development and plasticity of visual structure and function, visuomotor control mechanisms, and cognitive processes. The introduction to each section discusses the nature and significance of the problem areas, providing a context for the chapters to follow, which review the current status of research on a specific problem. The contributors are an international assemblage of researchers, representing a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ornithology to neurophysiology and including ethology, experimental psychology, anatomy, and developmental neurobiology. For the ethologist, avian behavior is the source of a wide variety of species-typical fixed action patterns; for the experimental psychologist, birds are the subject of choice for studies of conditioning, learning, and cognitive processes; for the neurobiologist they provide model systems for studying developmental processes, sensory mechanisms, orientation, and motor control. For these reasons, research on the avian brain and behavior occupies an increasingly important place in contemporary behavioral biology.
Brain and the Gaze
Title | Brain and the Gaze PDF eBook |
Author | Jan Lauwereyns |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Pages | 313 |
Release | 2012 |
Genre | Health & Fitness |
ISBN | 0262017911 |
Although we routinely take our vision to be veridical representations of reality, in actuality we choose (albeit unwittingly) or construct what we see. By movements of the eyes, the direction of our gaze, we create meaning. The author offers a reformulation of perception and its neural underpinnings, focusing on the active nature of perception. In his investigation of active perception and its brain mechanisms, he offers the gaze as the principal paradigm for perception. He discusses the dynamic and constrained nature of perception; the complex information processing at the level of the retina; the active nature of vision; the intensive nature of representations; the gaze of others as visual stimulus; and the intentionality of vision and consciousness.
Inner Vision
Title | Inner Vision PDF eBook |
Author | Semir Zeki |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Pages | 224 |
Release | 1999 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780198505198 |
Beautifully illustrated and vividly written, "Inner Vision" explores how different areas of the brain shape responses to visual arts. 84 color illustrations. 8 halftones. 30 line illustrations.
Discovering the Brain
Title | Discovering the Brain PDF eBook |
Author | National Academy of Sciences |
Publisher | National Academies Press |
Pages | 195 |
Release | 1992-01-01 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 0309045290 |
The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."