Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Vision in Vertebrates
Chapter 3: Vision in Invertebrates
Chapter 4: Color Vision
Chapter 5: Visual Space Perception
Chapter 6: Touch
Chapter 7: Hearing
Chapter 8: Taste
Chapter 9: Smell
Chapter 10: Senses We Don’t Have
Chapter 11: Final Thoughts
Biography
Mark Hollins is Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, where for several decades he taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in Sensation and Perception. His interests are in sensory processes and perception, especially in the senses of vision and touch. Much of his work has focused on control processes, such as binocular rivalry in vision and pain gating in somesthesis, by which some sensory signals are able to amplify or attenuate others. He has also helped to establish that tactile textures are perceived by means of two sensory mechanisms: spatial coding for coarse textures, and vibration coding for fine ones.
With Sensory Systems of Animals, Mark Hollins has created one of the first comprehensive university level textbooks about animal sensory biology. The author elegantly compares features of sensory biology across species, making the reader appreciate how each animal's sensory Umwelten is shaped by its specific needs and how the features of its sensory system from molecules to circuits are adapted to this. He bridges scientific history, basic physical and mathematical concepts with modern scientific contributions and his excitement and enthusiasm for sensory biology is infectious, making this well written book an enjoyable read.
Lena van Giesen, Associate Professor, Institute for Biology, Department of Animal Physiology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
