Convergent Thalamic and Cortical Projections — The Non-Specific System

Abstract

An eight-volume treatise on sensory physiology is nearing completion with the publication of volume II. Other volumes (some divided into parts) published during 1971, 1972 and 1973 have dealt with the principles of receptor physiology, enteroceptors, olfaction, taste, photochemistry of vision, physiology of photoreceptor organs, central processing of visual information, and visual psychophysics. Future volumes will deal with muscle receptors and other specialized receptors; the auditory system; the vestibular system; perception. Turning to volume II, various aspects of the somato-sensory system are covered by 19 chapters written by various specialist contributors from a number of countries. Subjects of these chapters range from cutaneous receptors and spinal cord pathways to the thalamus and the somatosensory cortex. This is a work which should be available as a whole if physiologists are to derive maximum benefit from it, for each volume forms an integral part of the whole. One would expect to find it in a national physiological institute or a university library. The total cost of the handbook is, so far, 2094 DM or about pounds-sterling 360, which places it beyond the reach of veterinary libraries which serve a department of physiology.