The Oxford Encyclopedia of Sensory Systems

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Sensory Systems provides a comprehensive scholarly account of the diverse means that organisms use to interact with their environments, as well as the biological adaptations that shape these systems across species.

More than 100 leading scholars were commissioned to write brand new articles for these volumes, contributing to a collective effort that presents both foundational and emerging topics in the field of sensory neuroscience. Organized into topical sections, across 61 long-form articles, the Encyclopedia examines the somotaosensory, vestibular, olfactory, and gustatory systems of vertebrates and invertebrates alike. Each peer-reviewed article provides a thorough summary of the subject at hand and deepens understanding by discussing the history of perspectives on the topic, the current state of the field, and future directions for research.

As a work, the Encyclopedia serves as a valuable contribution and testament to the variety of scholarship within sensory neuroscience. Researchers, students, and professionals alike will turn to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Sensory Systems as a standard reference in the field.

W. Martin Usrey is editor of sensory systems for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. He is Professor and Chair of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and Professor of Neurology at UC Davis. His research is focused on understanding the functional properties of neural circuits that serve vision and the relationship between circuit activity, behavior, and perception. He has authored over 70 publications and directed several international courses and conferences on sensory processing and thalamocortical relations. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The Usrey laboratory is home to Brainmaps.org, an interactive, high-resolution digital brain atlas and virtual microscope for students, educators, and researchers.

S. Murray Sherman is Maurice Goldblatt Professor and Chairman in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago. His books include Functional Connections of Cortical Areas and Exploring the Thalamus and its Role in Cortical Function. Dr. Sherman is the author of more than 150 scientific papers, has served on the committees of several scientific organizations, and on the editorial boards of multiple journals, including Journal of Neuroscience, Visual Neurosciences, and Thalamus and Related Systems. He has held visiting academic positions at universities in the UK and China. The main focus of Dr. Sherman's research is directed towards understanding thalamic functional organization through a variety of interdisciplinary techniques. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience.

1. General Principles
Evolution of Neocortex for Sensory Processing (Jon Kaas)
General Principles for Sensory Coding (Tatyana Sharpee)
Synaptic Properties of Sensory Thalamus (Martha Bickford)
Thalamocortical Interactions for Sensory Processing (Jose-Manuel Alonso and Harvey Swadlow)

2. Somatosensory System
Neural Mechanisms for Texture Perception, (Justin Lieber and Sliman Bensmaia)
Neural Processing of Pain and Itch (Taylor Follansbee, Mirela Iodi Carstens, and Earl Carstens)
Nociceptors and Chronic Pain (Edgar Walters)
Pain and its Modulation (Asaf Keller)
Phantom Limbs and Brain Plasticity in Amputees (Tamar Makin and London Plasticity Lab)
Sensing the Environment with Whiskers (Mathew Evans, Michaela Loft, Dario Campagner, and Rasmus Petersen)
The Sensory World of the Naked Mole-Rat (Thomas Park)
Somatosensory Specializations in Mammals (Jon Kaas)
Somatosensory System Organization in Mammals - Response to Spinal Injury (Corinna Darian-Smith and Karen M. Fisher)

3. Visual System
Evolution, Homology, Cell Classification, and Parallel Processing for Vision (S. Murray Sherman, W. Martin Usrey)
Functional Organization of Vertebrate Retinal Circuits for Vision (Tom Baden, Timm Schubert, Philipp Berens, and Thomas Euler)
Genetics and Evolution of Color Vision in Primates (Jerry Jacobs)
Mammalian Visual System Organization (Farran Briggs)
Motion Processing in Primates (Tyler Manning and Kenneth Britten)
Physiology of Color Vision (Robert Shapley)
Raptor Vision (Mindaugas Mitkus, Simon Potier, Graham Martin, Olivier Duriez, and Almut Kelber)
Retinal Mechanisms for Motion Detection (Mathew Summers, Malek El Quessny, and Marla B. Feller)
Stereopsis and Depth Perception (Andrew Parker)
Vision and Art (Bevil Conway)
Visual Attention (Sabine Kastner and Timothy J. Buschman)
Visual Shape and Object Perception (Anitha Pasupathy, Yasmine El-Shamayleh, and Dina Popovkina)

4. Auditory System
Auditory Hair Cells and Sensory Transduction (Jeffrey Holt and Gwenaelle Géléoc)
Auditory Mechanisms of Echolocation in Bats (Cynthia Moss)
Auditory Processing in the Aging Brain (Gregg Recanzone)
Central Auditory Processing (Josef Rauschecker)
Neural Population Coding of Natural Sounds in Non-Flying Mammals (Israel Nelken)
Neural Mechanisms of Tinnitus (Adam Hockley and Susan E. Shore)
Neurobiology of Auditory Hallucinations (Judith Ford, Holly Hamilton, and Alison Boos)
Plasticity of Information Processing in the Auditory System (Andrew King)
Synesthesia and Sensory Processing (Louisa Rinaldi)

5. Vestibular System and Multisensory Integration
Magnetoreception and Bird Navigation (Roswitha Wiltschko and Wolfgang Wiltschko)
Multisensory Integration and Perception of Self Motion (Kathleen Cullen)

6. Olfactory System
Aging and Olfaction (Richard Doty)
Cortical Processing of Odorants (Yaniv Cohen, Emmanuelle Courtiol, Regina M. Sullivan, and Donald Wilson)
Molecular Biology of Olfactory Receptors and Circuits (Richard Tucker and Qizhi Gong)
Navigation towards the Source: Strategies and Mechanisms (Yaniv Cohen)
Neural Mechanisms for Odor-Guided Behavior (Donald Wilson)
Olfactory Perception Daniel Wesson, (Sang Eun Ryu and Hillary Cansler)

7. Gustatory System
Anatomical Organization and Coding in the Gustatory System: A Functional Perspective (Susan Travers and Alan Spector)
Neural Processing of Taste Information (Alfredo Fontanini and Lindsey Czarnecki)
Taste Buds and Gustatory Transduction: A Functional Perspective (Alan Spector and Susan Travers)

8. Vertebrate Sensory Processing in Aquatic Environments
Active Electroreception in Weakly Electric Fish (Angel Caputi)
Biosonar and Sound Localization in Dolphins (Paul E. Nachtigall)
Chemoreception in fishes (Hiroshi Ueda)
The Processing of Hydrodynamic Stimuli with the Fish Lateral Line System (Joachim Mogdans)

9. Invertebrate Sensory Systems
Annelid Vision (Cynthia M. Harley and Mark K. Asplen)
Caenorhabditis elegans (Olfaction Douglas K. Reilly and Jagan Srinivasan)
Cephalopod Olfaction (Anna Di Cosmo, Gianluca Polese)
Crustacean Olfaction (Charles Derby and Manfred Schmidt)
Crustacean Visual Circuits Underlying Behavior (Daniel Tomsic and Julieta Sztarker)
Drosophila Olfaction (Quentin Gaudry and Jonathan Schenk)
Insect Color Vision (Natalie Hempel de Ibarra and Misha Vorobyev)
Insect Navigation: Neural Basis to Behavior (Stanley Heinze)
Invertebrate Nociception (Nathaniel J. Himmel, Atit A. Patel, and Daniel N. Cox)
Leech Mechanosensation (Brian D. Burrell)
Sensing Polarized Light in Insects (Thomas Mathejczyk and Mathias F. Wernet)
Stomatopod Vision (Thomas W. Cronin, N. Justin Marshall, and Roy L. Caldwell)