Visual cortex

The visual cortex of the brain is that part of the cerebral cortex which processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Visual nerves run straight from the eye to the primary visual cortex to the Visual Association cortex. The visual cortex of the brain is that part of the cerebral cortex which processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Visual nerves run straight from the eye to the primary visual cortex to the Visual Association cortex. Visual information coming from the eye goes through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus and then reaches the visual cortex. The part of the visual cortex that receives the sensory inputs from the thalamus is the primary visual cortex, also known as visual area 1 (V1, Brodmann area 17), and the striate cortex. The extrastriate areas consist of visual areas 2 (V2, Brodmann area 18), 3, 4, and 5 (V3, V4, V5, all Brodmann area 19). Both hemispheres of the brain contain a visual cortex; the visual cortex in the left hemisphere receives signals from the right visual field, and the visual cortex in the right hemisphere receives signals from the left visual field. The primary visual cortex (V1) is located in and around the calcarine fissure in the occipital lobe. Each hemisphere's V1 receives information directly from its ipsilateral lateral geniculate nucleus that receives signals from the contralateral visual hemifield. Neurons in the visual cortex fire action potentials when visual stimuli appear within their receptive field. By definition, the receptive field is the region within the entire visual field that elicits an action potential. But, for any given neuron, it may respond best to a subset of stimuli within its receptive field. This property is called neuronal tuning. In the earlier visual areas, neurons have simpler tuning. For example, a neuron in V1 may fire to any vertical stimulus in its receptive field. In the higher visual areas, neurons have complex tuning. For example, in the inferior temporal cortex (IT), a neuron may fire only when a certain face appears in its receptive field. The visual cortex receives its blood supply primarily from the calcarine branch of the posterior cerebral artery. V1 transmits information to two primary pathways, called the ventral stream and the dorsal stream. The what vs. where account of the ventral/dorsal pathways was first described by Ungerleider and Mishkin. More recently, Goodale and Milner extended these ideas and suggested that the ventral stream is critical for visual perception whereas the dorsal stream mediates the visual control of skilled actions. It has been shown that visual illusions such as the Ebbinghaus illusion distort judgements of a perceptual nature, but when the subject responds with an action, such as grasping, no distortion occurs.