Book excerpt: Part of the Oxford Textbooks in Clinical Neurology series, the Oxford Textbook of Clinical Neurophysiology includes sections that provide a summary of the basic science underlying neurophysiological techniques, a description of the techniques themselves, including normal values, and a description of the use of the techniques in clinical situations. Much of diagnostic neurophysiology is essentially pattern recognition which is illustrated throughout the text using audio and video examples. Divided into four key sections, this book begins with the scientific basis of clinical neurophysiology (Section 1) before exploring specific techniques including Electromyography, Intracranial EEG recordings, and Magnetoencephalography (Section 2). The final two sections explore clinical aspects of both the peripheral nervous system (Section 3) and the central nervous system (Section 4).