From light to sight

This short book is a first principles and concise description of how the human visual system works, while at the same time providing rich technically detail. The reader with have sufficient material so that by the end of the book she or he will have a good grasp on how incoming light (photons) get converted into a neurochemical signal the brain can understand, ultimately resulting in the perception of the visual world. No prior neuroscience knowledge is required. One can find a number of good lay introductions to the visual system and the brain in general, but very few (if any) actually dig down into the neurobiological and neurophysiological details underlying the high level concepts being explained. Conversely, there are many excellent technical articles and text books on the brain and the visual system, but in general these assume a considerable amount of prior knowledge and are not typically accessible to the non-scientist who is reading this level of material for the first time. This book fills this gap by providing a concise introduction that is sufficiently detailed so that the reader ends up with a good degree of depth and preparation for a deeper exploration of the subject.