Development, Organization, and Processing in Somatosensory Pathways

While quite provocative, the chapter on sensory systems analysis is uneven in quality. The Weiner method of white noise analysis of nonlinear systems is an esoteric technique based upon multidimensional cross-correlation of input-output relationships; these yield n-dimensional "kernels" which may be used to reconstruct the system. Naka, however, has written better descriptions of his pioneering use of this method. Those papers are referenced, however, and thus this presentation is not a total loss. It is unfortunate that a longer and more comprehensive paper was not devoted to such a highly technical but potentially important topic. The last paper in this chapter is a wildly over-ambitious work entitled "Signal Integration in the Cortex." The contribution is a mere six pages, has a single figure, and is really about neuronal synchronization. Imagine the excitement generated from reading the table of contents and the subsequent letdown that occurred after reading the paper. When reading the original articles referenced in many of the papers in this volume, one can easily see that the scientific quality is uniformly high, yet one does not always get the feeling that the present papers are the best works of their authors. In general, this volume is useful as an indicator of new techniques being used and as a source of references to more complete presentations of these techniques. As such, the book largely fulfills its goal of promoting a "cross-fertilization of ideas" among neuroscientists.