"We Know It When We See It" was an interesting read and I liked learning more about how our vision works, but the writing style and some of the author's tangents didn't really work for me.

The information itself was interesting (if incredibly complex in some places), but the presentation could have been improved upon in my opinion.

It was the tagline that got me interested in reading this book. I took an elective in my undergrad, which focused on Neural Networking, and I remember loving the course and for once taking great notes( despite not being able to recollect most of the content now). I leant it to a junior immediately after the course was over and every once in a while I think about how nice it would have been to be able to refresh the basics. That background did help me find a little something more, the deeper the author went into the subject.

The author's purpose is simple, as he mentions in the book. He intends to bring the process of investigation, analysis and a general introduction of the neurobiology of sight to the average public since the scientific community would probably compile the notes in scientific journals that may not reach us. The problem was my copy was an advance reviewers version and lacked a lot of the diagrams being discussed, so I missed out on following a few facts. The content is supposed to be primarily about how we see and how our brain processes it. Sometimes there was a tangent when the people in the field are described for longer than I expected. Personally, I think a basic understanding of nerves, nerve endings etc. at high school level would be needed to process the more complicated analysis but maybe Google could help the really interested get further background information. The topics covered in the book do not merge to a single goal but instead talk about a lot of things, the majority of which I found fascinating. One thing that stuck with me and probably will for a while is the 'face recognition' parts of our brain. The study that gathered information about it and the results found were truly intriguing (to me).

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers. The review, however, is entirely based on my own reading experience and my prior minuscule amount of knowledge about some of the topics discussed here.

We Know It When We See It is a layman accessible examination of sight and the incredible neurobiology of its cooperation with the body. Released 10th March 2020 by Hatchette on their Basic Books imprint, it's 272 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. t's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

There are a handful of engaging and adept "everyman" science writers who manage to break down and convey complex, even profound, concepts into digestible parts for non-specialists. It's a distinct gift and not one that all science writers have in equal measure. Happily, Dr. Masland seems to be quite adept at instruction without obfuscation, and I really enjoyed reading this densely instructive (and entertaining) treatise.

The book proceeds logically, building and defining the concepts from perception, through sight, how neurons are built up and interact, signaling pathways, some brain physiology and moving along to how the brain interprets the sent signals, what that means for the body in general and more widely, possible applications for machine learning and AI. (Exciting / fascinating stuff)!

The text throughout is meticulously annotated and full of links to further more specialized/complex reading for the especially interested. The author also includes short chapter notes at the end of the book with expanded info on chapter subjects. There is a comprehensive bibliography and further reading list, as well as a good glossary, but no index.

This book reminds me a lot of some of the best classes of my university career; enlightening and educational lectures with an engaged and competent professor. The text is never overly academic or pedantic (or dull), but it will take some effort to extract and learn the presented information.

Five stars, fascinating and worthwhile book for everyone.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thanks to Perseus Books, Basic Books for the ARC!
I apologize that I wasn't able to post my feedback before the pub date.

Very interesting read. It's out of my comfort zone, but I truly enjoyed it.

One might think that the clinical study of neuroscience would be akin to watching paint dry, until it is considered that only these slow, painful gains of knowledge lead to greater understanding of how our bodies and minds work. I consider the content of this book to be dense, jam-packed with knowledge on how our eyes work. Author Richard Masland realizes his audience, and does his best to walk us through the harder parts. The pictures and drawings throughout the book are a definite aid.

Along the way, Mr. Masland stretches out and examines other related paths, such as how memories are stored and the comparison between human and machine learning (contrary to what the media tells us, at this point in time we are not in danger of being replaced). Throughout the book there are plenty of explanations while at other times we receive a question to chew on (For example, in the last paragraph a question is posed: “When I see an apple, do I see the same red as you?”). That reminded me of a good friend, whose perceptions of what is green or blue always seems to slightly differ from mine.

This is not an easy read, but Mr. Masland’s style of writing greatly reduces the difficulty. Once a major point has been achieved, there is a recap to help us remember the salient pieces of knowledge. I also found the glossary to be invaluable if I didn’t remember a definition. I learned more about the ability to see than I ever expected, and did receive information about AI and the endeavors to make them see and remember (which was one of the reason I wanted to read this book). A side benefit were the extended explanations on how lab work and experiments in the world of neuroscience are conducted. Extremely interesting. Five stars.

Interesting and accessible book on the science behind your eyes. Having recently been diagnosed with a progressive brain condition that could alter my sight, I'm busy devouring everything I can on how the connection between my eyes and my brain works.

Thank you to Perseus Books/Basic Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a deep dive into neuroscience, and a very good attempt to explain broadly how perception, including vision, works. Even without any particulary scientific background, it is fascinating to realize how our nervous system interacts with the outside world and its stimuli, and how information is conveyed to the brain.

What did not work so well for me were the author's attempts to move beyond this topic, as the explanations quickly got extremely technical and lost me. I also felt that the tagline of the title ("What the neurobiology of vision tells us about how we think") didn't really work, as the author basically bailed on discussing the nature of consciousness.

A fantastic, well-written account of a scientific look at an incredibly important subject. The author’s staggering research comes off as easily readable and this massive undertaking is presented in a thoroughly enjoyable manner. The advance copy is missing some diagrams I’m anxious to see, but the scope and depth of these nearly 300 pages will surely prove to be a leap toward an even greater understanding of what it is for the human eye to “see” something.

Remarkable. This is one of those science books you love to find, no matter your particular interest in any field – a book written by seemingly one of the leaders in the field who has seemingly contributed much to the study of the issue at hand, yet who writes a book that we who barely know what the general subject is can understand the state of the field and the author’s contributions to it. In this particular case, we are hearing about the state of vision and perception research from a cellular biologist who has himself won a couple of awards for research in this very field. Masland writes with enough precision that his peers can likely only quibble, if anything, and yet with enough generality that the rest of us can fairly easily follow the discussion. Even with a lack of the discussed diagrams in this particular ARC, the discussion was easily enough followed and the mild humor – if a bit geeky – was appreciated. Very much recommended.