Customer Reviews

Movements of the Eyes

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There are 2 editions to the textbook. The second is the one this review is based upon. The book discusses regulation, comparative physiology, psychophysics, timing, bioengineering, psychology, and perception to some extent. Carpenter covers the period 1930s-1985 and makes a good effort to be comprehensive in coverage. I think the book functions best as a research tool and reference for the advanced postgraduate. In my earlier review I indicated my frustration with it, but think that this is one amongst many books to study in oculomotor physiology. The other one is Eye Movements MacMillan editors by Carpenter. Grossberg wrote one which is out of print by now. This is a tough field to tackle and this should be kept in mind when reading about it. Principles of Neural Science has one chapter which gives a nice overview of the topic. This text is a decade out of date, but I thought a reasonable starting point to obtain a solid body of knowledge concerning oculomotor neurophysiology. For an expert who knows the field well already, this may be a good text. The writing style is convoluted and tedious to follow some of the time. Roger Carpenter's Neurophysiology 4th ed. is very clearly and simply written. This book is just not the same. He is one of the world's foremost experts in the field and I expected more from him. Instead I referred to Hung's Models of Oculomotor Control as well as Carpenter's edited Eye Movements. These other two books were easier to read. The present text assumes a vast acquaintance with oculomotor literature dating back to the late 1950's through the 1980s. Roger Carpenter should write another book on Oculomotor Physiology well before he retires to update the information in his other two books on the subject which are about 10 years dated.