Brain and visual perception

The story of a 25-year collaboration

David H. Hubel, Torsten N. Wiesel

730 pages, parution le 31/10/2004

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Résumé

Scientists' understanding of two central problems in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy has been greatly influenced by the work of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel: (I) What is it to see? This relates to the machinery that underlies visual perception. (2) How do we acquire the brain's mechanisms for vision? This is the nature-nurture question as to whether the nerve connections responsible for vision are innate or whether they develop through some process related to learning. It asks whether the connections can be changed through experience in the early life of an animal or human. This is a book about the collaboration between Hubel and Wiesel, which began in 1958, lasted until about 1982, and led to a Nobel Prize in 1981. It opens with short autobiographies of both men, describes the state of the field when they started, and tells about the beginnings of their collaboration.

It emphasizes the importance of various mentors in their lives, especially Stephen W. Kuffler, who opened up the field by studying the cat retina in 1950, and founded the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, where most of their work was done. The main part of the book consists of Hubel and Wiesel's most important publications. Each reprinted paper is preceded by a foreword that tells how they went about the research, what the difficulties and the pleasures were, and whether they felt a paper was important and why. Each is also followed by an afterword describing how the paper was received and what developments have occurred since its publication. The reader learns things that are often absent from typical scientific publications, including whether the work was difficult, fun, personally rewarding, exhilarating, or just plain tedious. The book ends with a summing-up of the authors' view of the present state of the field. This is much more than a collection of reprinted papers.

Above all it tells the story of an unusual scientific collaboration that was hugely enjoyable and served to transform an entire branch of neuro-biology. It will appeal to neuroscientists, vision scientists, biologists, psychologists, physicists, historians of science, and to their students and trainees, at all levels from high school on, as well as to anyone else who is interested in the scientific process.

L'auteur - David H. Hubel

David H. Hubel, M.D., is the John Enders University Professor of Neurobiology, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School.

L'auteur - Torsten N. Wiesel

Torsten N. Wiesel, M.D., is Director of the Shelby White and Leon Levy Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, and President Emeritus, The Rockefeller University. He is also Secretary General of the Human Frontier Science Program and President of the International Brain Research Organization.

Sommaire

Introduction and Biographies
Background to Our Research
Normal Physiology and Anatomy
Deprivation and Development
Three Reviews
List of papers Included
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Today, Forty-Six Years After Starting
Index

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Oxford University Press
Auteur(s)	David H. Hubel, Torsten N. Wiesel
Parution	31/10/2004
Nb. de pages	730
Format	18 x 26
Couverture	Relié
Poids	1675g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780195176186
ISBN13	978-0-19-517618-6