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This massive volume was designed by the author for use both 'as a textbook for graduate and undergraduate students in biopsychology, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy', and as 'a useful reference for research workers in these and allied fields'. The author defines the somewhat hybrid field of physiological psychology as the study of 'the physiological and chemical processes (and their anatomical substrates) that intervene between the arrival of sensory signals in the central nervous system and the elaboration of appropriate responses to them'.
The book consists of four parts, Part I being a quite thorough review of those aspects of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology necessary for understanding the subsequent text. Part II consists of a detailed examination of one sensory system (vision), the classical motor systems, and reticular mechanisms. The author has confined himself to the visual system as an example of perceptual processes since, as he states, this field has become so complex as to be beyond the scope of this volume. Part III discusses motivational mechanisms, including hunger, thirst, sexual behavior, and rewarding and aversive effects of central stimulation. Part IV covers the areas of learning, recall, and forgetting.
Dr. Grossman has produced a scholarly work with meticulous amassing of data and source references. His style, however, is rather uneven, and at times the masses of experimental data seem to interfere with any conceptual integration or organization of the material, in spite of summaries which are often appended. The author