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| Year : 1998
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: 1 | Issue : 1 | Page
: 76 |
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| Psychophysical and physiological advances in hearing |
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Andrew Forge
Reader in Auditory Cell Biology, Institute of Laryngology and Otology, University College London, United Kingdom
Click here for correspondence address
and email
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How to cite this article:
Forge A. Psychophysical and physiological advances in hearing. Noise Health 1998;1:76 |
A.R. Palmer, A. Rees A.Q. Summerfield and R. Meddis (Editors)
Whurr Publishers Ltd., London 1998: ISBN 1 86156 069 9 Price: £50.00
This book is composed of the 75 papers presented at the 11th International Symposium on Hearing, held in August 1997. At that meeting leading auditory research scientists reviewed progress across the variety of disciplines that constitutes contemporary hearing research. Thus, the scope of the work presented is far wider than the title of the volume might suggest. Physiological and psychophysical analyses are complemented by chapters describing modelling studies and by presentations of relevant cell and molecular biology. In addition, the range of topics includes not only signal processing and coding along the entire auditory pathway from the cochlea to cortex, but also the cellular basis of cochlear mechanics and hair cell regeneration. To assist passage through this comprehensive coverage, related papers have been grouped together by "theme". Chapters on cochlear mechanics and efferent effects are followed by those concerned with hair cell structure, physiology and regeneration, and then by those on the auditory nerve and cochlear nucleus; the subsequent groupings cover pitch, binaural processing, loudness, central processing and temporal processing. The editors have managed to ensure that every chapter is short, the 75 contributions occupy only 610 pages, so that the message of each is conveyed succinctly, but at least in those I sampled from each section (I confess I have not read the whole book) the writing is generally of a sufficiently high standard that although extraneous information is kept to a minimum, the significance and context of the work reported is usually clear even in those subject areas where often, elsewhere, there is a tendency for the jargon to overpower the uninitiated. Points raised during discussion of the paper after its presentation at the meeting are included at the end of chapters. Sometimes these provide further insights or bring out additional information, but the length and depth of these post-presentational discussions seems to have been highly variable.
By enabling production of the book in less than a year after the meeting the editors and publishers have ensured that it retains topicality. It is, therefore, a comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date summary of current thinking about fundamental issues in hearing research. Almost anyone involved in hearing research at any level will find something of value in it and it should provide a useful source of information for some time; at least until the proceedings of the 12th meeting are published.
Correspondence Address:
Andrew Forge
Reader in Auditory Cell Biology, Institute of Laryngology and Otology, University College London
United Kingdom
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
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