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| Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks speaks at Columbia University on June 3, 2009, in New York City |
Sack's assistant, Kate Edgar, says he died Sunday at his home in New York City.
Sacks had announced in February that he was terminally ill with a rare eye cancer that had spread to his liver.
As a neurologist, Sacks looked at some of his patients with a writer's eye and found new ways of explaining how all human brains function.
His book "Awakenings," about patients who spent years in a helpless, almost frozen state, was made into an Oscar-nominated 1990 movie starring Robin Williams.
His 1985 "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" became a best-seller. The title referred to a patient who had difficulty interpreting what he saw and really did mistake his wife's face for his own hat.
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