News

DVD - Making Sense of Sensory Information

"For thousands of years humans have asked if we perceive the world accurately through our senses. From Plato onwards, we've wondered how our own cognition has influenced the messages we receive from our sense organs. Are we perceiving what is really out there? Because seeing is so important to our species, efforts to understand how perceptions are generated have most often focused on vision. This film explores the challenges of explaining visual perception. Using current information from neuroscience imaging techniques and lab based research, the film describes the profound technical and philosophical challenges scientists face in attempting to explain perception. The production includes overviews of the brain structures utilized to process sensory input and their neural connections to other brain regions, with an emphasis on visual perception. The essential role of cognition in interpreting sensory input is well demonstrated with intriguing visuals including optical illusions from the Purves lab at Duke University".
The DVD was released in September, 2008. For more information, visit Davidson Films.

Best of the Web

The Purves lab website has been voted the "Best of the Web" by the editors of the Scientist magazine! You can read more about it here.

New Books

Neuroscience, Fourth Edition

Neuroscience, Fourth Edition is a comprehensive textbook created for medical and premedical students as well as graduate students and advanced undergraduates who wish to learn neuroscience. The updated and revised fourth edition was published by Sinauer Associates in the summer of 2007. The editor/authors of the 4th edition are Dale Purves, George Augustine, David Fitzpatrick, William Hall, Anthony-Samuel LaMantia, James McNamara, and Leonard White.

Book infor at Sinauer Associates.

Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience

Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience is a textbook written for graduate and undergraduate students seeking an introduction to this emerging field. It was published by Sinauer Associates in the fall of 2007. The text is intended to inform readers about the rapidly growing canon of cognitive neuroscience, and to make clear the many challenges that remain in this field. The editor/authors are Dale Purves, Elizabeth Brannon, Roberto Cabeza, Scott Huettel, Kevin LaBar, Michael Platt, Marty Woldorff.

Book info at Sinauer Associates.

Articles and Downloads

General Articles

Media accounts of work in the lab addressed to general audiences as well as opinions about the approach to vision presented in the website can be found in the resources section.

Images available for Download

A number of images from the See For Yourself and Research sections of the website are available for download in the resources section. Images can be downloaded in either high or low resolution. Just provide your e-mail in the reserved spaces and a username and password will be emailed to you.

Download Out-of-Print Books

The books Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain, Body and Brain: A Trophic Theory of Neural Connections and Principles of Neural Development are out-of-print, but you can download them here.

Natural Scene Image Database

We have collected a database of range images of natural scenes. For colleagues who are interested in using this database, please contact Dale Purves for more information. Database of color scenes are also available.