Living Medicine: Planning a Career, Choosing a Specialty

Most of the book is dedicated to describing the complex interpretation of images at the level of the cortex. A summary of the encoding of objects in their shapes, color, movement, and depth is provided in an enjoyable chapter which explains some of the rationale behind optical illusions. This material is followed by a detailed analysis of neural velocity field computation, recognition of facial expression, motion processing, and the coordination of eye movement. An interesting discussion of the use of positron emission tomography to help map visual cortex functioning is also included. For the neurology student, this book can be an amusing and up-to-date summary of visual processing systems. For the clinician, it also sheds light on the visual disturbances associated with such conditions as Parkinson's disease, Altzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis. For the vision researcher, it serves as a convenient collection of some of the field's pioneering work. In any case, it comes with a hefty price tag.