Editorial - Robert Rafal

This special issue commemorates the clinical observations and scientific contributions of Professor Robert (Bob) Rafal (Fig. 1), a highly supportive and insightful neurologist whose research has been instrumental towards our understanding of the neural basis of oculomotor behavior, attention, and perception. As illustrated in Fig. 2, Bob has a remarkable ability to translate surprising observations made at the bedside, such as less extinction for different objects (e.g., a comb and a spoon) than for the same objects (e.g., two forks), into elegant empirical studies conducted in the laboratory (Baylis et al., 1993, Rafal et al., 2002, Vuilleumier and Rafal, 2000). This observation is artistically represented in the cover image of a unilaterally perceived spoon. His keen observational skills along with his passion and compassion are inspirational to those who have been fortunate enough to work with him.