Central disorders of vision in humans by Girkin & Miller (2001): a review of what happens if different parts of the visual cortex are damaged. “Superimposed hemifields in primary visual cortex of achiasmic individuals” by Sinha & Meng (2012, Neuron 75): Newton vs. Descartes on the organization of the optic chiasm. Youtube video demonstrating how Hubel & Wiesel mapped V1 receptive fields.
Animal Eyes by Land & Nilsson is a very nice little book about the fascinating variety of eye structures found in nature. Youtube video about the “connectome” of the retina
General Is the human cortex exceptionally large? See Herculano-Houzel (2009) The human brain in numbers: a linearly scaled-up primate brain. Frontiers in Neuroscience 3, e31. [Tenor sings opera during craniotomy](Tenor sings opera during craniotomy): I just think this is quite fascinating. “Language areas” The history of Broca’s area: Dronkers et al. (2007) Neuroimaging of Language: Why hasn’t a clear picture emerged? Fedorenko & Kanwisher (2009) Language and Linguistics Compass 3, 10.
Read moreInteresting A man with only half a brain A study of a man who recovered vision after decades of being blind: Fine et al. (2003) Long-term deprivation affects visual perception and cortex. Nat. Neurosci. 6, p915. How Utter Darkness Could Heal Lazy Eye: related to ocular dominance critical period. Giving blind people sight illuminates the brain’s secrets General review Anderson et al (2011) Do children really recover better?
Read moreMore about extracellular recording Wikipedia entry about single-unit recording Extracellular single-unit Recording Methods: a paper by Humphrey & Schmidt