How Vision Works: The Physiological Mechanisms Behind What We See

This book covers all aspects of the visual system from sensory aspects to eye movements, attention, and visual memory. There are many books that cover the psychology and physiology of a single aspect of vision, such as color vision or eye movements. Other larger texts may offer encyclopedic coverage of the psychology of all aspects of vision. However, this is the only book on the market covering the psychology, anatomy, and physiology of all aspects of the visual system in 300 pages.

Each chapter addresses a separate aspect of vision, describing the basic phenomena, where in the brain this aspect of vision occurs, the properties of the cells in those areas, and the deficits that result from a lesion or stroke in those areas. In addition to extensive illustrations, the book contains the author's selection of the literature, from the classic 19th century papers to the present. This text is designed for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in psychology, optometry, physiology, anatomy, and medicine who want to get a broad view rather than one confined to their particular discipline.

Nigel Daw was educated in the UK, and went into Biophysics to get his PhD at Johns Hopkins University. After a postdoctoral Fellowship with David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel at Harvard, he became a faculty member at Washington University in St Louis, becoming Acting Chairman in Physiology, then in Neurobiology. After 23 years, he transferred to Yale, and served there as Professor until he retired.